Percy Jackson: New Blood
by Evil Tree
Summary: A mysterious boy appears at Camp Half-Blood, possessing near omnipotent strength, speed and durability. With him attacking the whole camp, and winning, Percy has to find his weakness if he is to be stopped.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone, and welcome to my first Peter Johnson- sorry, Percy Jackson fanfic.**

**Well this fic is basically a mix of my OC's origin stories so the description may change from OC to OC.**

**Now since it's my first time I don't know if I got the characters right, if I have compliment me, if I haven't flame me and tell me how to make it better (this is my first time writing over half a fic in the first person).**

**Enjoy :D**

**Percy Jackson: New blood**

The sun was falling. The sun was disappearing. The horizon enveloped it as it shone one last orange glow to the sky to try and remain dominant over the prevailing night. A boy stood. His back to the sun. His eyes were closed, waiting for the harsh rays to go. Finally the sun subsided. Stars filled the skies. The moon glared at it's kingdom. The boy opened his eyes. His hands grabbed a whitish-yellow sword that instantly turned a bluish-black. He looked at his opponents. Faced by monsters, growling, scavenging, things-of-nightmare's monsters. Scores of them. He smiled, a maniacal smile with his eyes blazing.

"So, come back for more have you? Very well." He stepped back and waited for them, his eyes held no fear, his stance no uncertainty. The first one leaped. He stood. It bared it's teeth. He raised the sword. The monster- Stopped. The smile evaporated to be replaced by confusion. The monster, a lion-goat-snake thingy was trying to move forward but was blocked like an invisible wall. The boy looked at the others. They were trying to barge through but they too couldn't pass.

Looking closed it appeared the wall was spanning around the land behind him where none, not even the biggest ones could pass. Not just the monsters but there were significantly less clouds on this side. The boy looked at the area, he saw strawberry field that he made a mental note to munch on later, a blue large house, what looked to be a Greek dining table and a number of cabins, even at this distance all different. His eyes gazed at the details of kids in armour tons of them and his ears pricked at their words, something about a fight or contest. His smiled came back.

"Well if it keeps them out I'm not complaining. Berries to much on, good weather and people. Who knows" He lowered his sword hanging it on his belt. "they might just be a match for me."

* * *

Well, here I am again. It's capture the flag and as always Annabeth has a master plan for the son of Poseidon. It goes something like this; seaweed brain stationed next to the creek boundary line then when wise girl comes with the flag I go in and patiently walk to the finish. When I mentioned the creek being the boundary lines she said 'technically it's banned to go _across _the boundary line, not on and under it'. I bet she had a discussion with Chiron that went her way.

I had nothing against the plan. With this one in the bag it would be the fifth consecutive win against Ares and I never mind a stroll underwater but it was just so…boring. There they were in the forest fighting for the flags, I could here the chants and cries, while I was here, waiting, away from the action. If I went to them, Annabeth would be mad, if I stayed I'll be bored. I chose to stay, in the middle of the dullness, with a horse plume on my head. As I thought about it I generally knew that the plan she told me wasn't going to happen. I was there to distract-

"Ahh, here he is." -her. I turned, sword readied for my unwanted rival. Clarisse la Rue. Daughter of Ares and No. 1 camp bully. It's no secret she's out to get me because I made her dad, a god devoted to war, lose in a sword fight with a twelve year old boy. Honestly, if the fate of the world wasn't hanging in the balance of getting my uncles master bolt back, I would have lost and lived with the humiliation. But life's not that simple, especially for me. I had to defeat him and she had to have it out for me. It's mainly because of this rivalry we've been on a winning streak.

"Clarisse" whispered another Ares-boy, all in a gang of five. "Shouldn't we stick to the flag, if we lose again-"

"We're not going to!" she snapped, apparently oblivious to the past few weeks. "Alright Pissy, you and me, now!" I readied myself, almost sure by the end of one round it wont be me and her, it'll be me and all of them. Held up her eclectic spear and charged. Shorter weapon, get in close. I kept that in mind and remembered to stay away from the spear head. If worst comes to worse I would get in the water. Call me impulsive, but after I fought her for so long I wanted to beat her fairly, on dry land in a vain attempt to knock sense into her skull. We clashed, unaware of the danger the other campers were in.

* * *

I, Annabeth daughter of Athena, scrambled through the forest, pursued by what looked to be Demeter-cabin half-blood's. I couldn't really tell, I was too busy running with the flag. We had lost theirs in the early part of the game but had reclaimed it and lost it many times in unison before it was deemed safe. Right now the tactic looked to be run as quickly as possible to the other side. But a child of Athena would hardly make a plan that transparent. There were campers on my team stationed behind the trees who would stop any pursuers or people who blocked my path.

I glided past two trees, a rope was pulled by two Hermes campers and the Demeter's tripped and fell. More of the blue team appeared from the trees ready to pull of the last trick. We were expecting a large volume of campers in a clearing I was heading to which was the quickest route to our territory. The plan was an arrowhead manoeuvre, strongest on the outside, the flag bearer in the middle. A drive through their forces then a sprint for the finish. Worst comes to worst get Percy to walk to the finish but that would only cause the other team to yell 'cheat' for the rest of the day.

The tree's vanished, I was in the clearing and as predicted there were the red team. The Ares never were good with surprises. The others were already there and the charge was on, arrowhead forming. They couldn't stop all of us at once. Easy victor-

I froze. Something just dropped out of the sky into the middle of the clearing. All campers stopped to stare at whatever it was. All fighting stopped, all shouting silenced, all competition lost. Weaving to and fro I managed to see what it was, or rather who he was. A boy about my age wearing ripped jeans, black t-shirt and black jacket. And when I say ripped I mean torn and shredded to the edge of their threads. His shoes weren't much better, what was bright colours looked to be faded by overuse and mud. He had long black hair, reaching past his shoulders which looked in need of a wash.

The boy stood up and I got to see his face. I was afraid to admit it but, he looked amazing. His eyes looked cat like, his face perfectly symmetrical, complexion, toning was perfect. Not saying I had anything for him but, he looked beautiful. I snapped myself out of it, taking note that if anyone asked, it was my ADHD. Looking back at him he seemed to be of Asian decent. He smiled, a wide, mischievous, sinister smile.

"Having fun everyone?" he said. "So who here is the strongest?"

"What's it to you?" Snarled an Ares boy. "Who are you? How did you get here?"

"What's it to you?" The boy mimicked, looking at him up from down. "So are you strong? Cause you don't look it." The Ares frowned and pointed his sword at him.

"What do you mean? I'm one of the strongest kids in camp!"

"Not to me your not, all I see is a wide load with a bad fashion sense." That drew the line. The war-mongering teen raised the blade. Ready to strike. I had to act.

"Wait!" They both froze and turned to me. "Not so fast, who are you and why are you picking a fight with us?"

"I wanted to see what your made of, how about a fight you guys against me."

"Are you crazy, all of us against one of you?"

"Yeah, it'll probably keep my eyes open at the most, what's this about stronger campers?" He was insane. He was surrounded, overpowered and weapon less. "Well, I guess I'll find out later." Wait, scratch that last part. He took what looked to be a bone like sword from his belt. It was thin, scratched and had cuts in it everywhere. "So, who's first, Blondie, wide load or all of you?" That blew it. The Ares bellowed a war cry and charged. I screamed for him to stop but he didn't listen. The mystery boy just stood there, not even looking at his opponent. Closer, sword glinting in the moonlight. He swung down-

Everybody gasped, me included. Not because of the injury caused by the blade. But lack thereof. Even the Ares boy looked stunned, colour draining from his face, white on red with his horse plume. The boy was holding onto the sword, with his bare hand, still not looking at him. Impossible, just impossible. No half-blood could do that. What was he? He chuckled. "What was I saying, keep my eyes open?" He gripped the blade, shattering it into shards of Olympian Bronze. "This Won't Even Keep Me Awake!" He yelled. I blinked at the scream. The next thing I saw was him his face an inch from mine, maniacal smile plastered over it. Then everything went black.

* * *

I dogged to the right and brought Riptide down on the spear, but the shaft was tougher than I thought. Clarisse drew back and trusted again. I learnt all to well to keep away from that spear as electricity crackled in it's head. This time I grabbed the shaft and attempted a slash on her shield to knock her off, but she had been doing this for years and all she did was stand back one step.

We backed away, levelling each other up. So far it was still one-on-one but that could change at any moment. All I had to do was keep this lot busy, that way Annabeth's job will be easier and this game can end sooner. I looked at the forest and saw no one. They were probably deep inside but still…something seemed off. I couldn't explain at the time but something was missing.

"No one's coming Pissy!" his opponent taunted. "You've got no chance." she advanced on me. "After this we'll have you screaming to daddy." Why does she always do that 'sent him crying home', 'screaming to daddy', 'begging for- It hit me. Screaming!

"Stop!" I shouted, knowing all to well during out fight the other kids had formed a circle round me.

"Yeah, like we're going to take orders from some-"

"Clarisse, listen." We paused for a few seconds. She just looked confused.

"What? I don't here anything. Are you just-"

"Exactly." She just stared at me. "There are scores of Demigods battling it out for two flags, shouting, fighting, stealing and signalling. So, where's all the noise?" Now, for one of the few times in her life her mind was off fighting. She lowered her spear and listened hard. The others followed suit, all gazing at the woods. Clarisse yelled out a signal cry, there are so many and they change so often I don't even bother learning my own teams calls. No response. Louder. Silence.

"They were suppose to call back."

"I don't like this, we need to find Chiron-"

"Hold it seaweed brain, I call the shots, we're going in there and finding what happened."

"Are you crazy?" Though looking back that was an obvious question. "If something took out all of them we don't stand a chance. We need to find Chiron and Mr. D."

"You're not the boss of me Jackson! I say we go and what I say-" Snap. Rustle. We turned to the sounds coming from the forest. Out came a camper, Hermes it would seem, running and calling.

"Help me! Help me!" He reached us and grabbed onto me. "He's coming he's coming he got everyone else what are we gonna do we're gonna die-"

"Quiet brat, what's going on!" The Ares girl demanded. I rolled my eyes, never let an Ares try to calm someone down.

"Whoa, slow down there…slow down." He stopped shouting, but his breathing was heavy and his face, usually so clean and smooth with their upturned eyebrows, sharp noses and mischievous smiles, was sweaty and full of panic. "Now, one bit at a time what happened."

"W-we were in the clearing, the A-Ares flag was being carried when out of nowhere s-s-someone landed in the middle of the fray. He stared talking about taking us all on, no one took him seriously but when Josh slashed at him he caught it and leaped at us and punched and kicked and they were all down I barley escaped!" I managed to catch most of what he said but it was still a bit blurry.

"So, umm…"

"Tony"

"Tony, what did he look like."

"He, he hand black hair, torn clothes, umm, umm."

"What about his face."

"Oh, good face. Cat like eyes, huge smile, the kind of face that the Aphrodite's would envy." I smiled at this, if only to make him more comfortable.

"What kind of powers did he have?"

"He dropped out of nowhere and when Josh slashed he-…he…" That same face of shock was plastered oven him, as if he seen a ghost. He shivered in the warm night. Eyes wide and fixed.

"He what? What it is?" Tony raised a shaking finger at the woods, where he was staring at. Me and the Ares's turned. There he was. Long dark haired boy with narrow eyes and torn clothes. I shot up and grasped Riptide, noting the Ares had prepared themselves long before me. He seemed to be carrying a large bag over his shoulder and had a face opposite to Tony. Tony was shocked and pale, his was happy and shining.

"Well, I was wondering if you would lead me to the strong ones, I sincerely hope you have cause their aren't many others they could be."

"Who are you?" I shouted.

"Who cares" Clarisse sneered. "if it's a fight he wants it's a fight he'll get."

"But you heard him, he beat them all."

"Ha! The wimp probably imagined it, got too scared and made monsters out of mice." The boy's smile faded.

"Huh" he began "you don't think I beat them all?"

"Hell no. Where's the proof?" His smile came back, an insane twisted smile.

"Want poof? Here ya go?" He tossed the large bag forward, it's top opening, spilling it's contents. Helmets. Red ones. Blue ones. Scattering all over the ground. One blue plumed one rolled to my feet. Involuntarily a picture of Annabeth appeared in my mind. "These are the helmets of all your friends fighting in the woods. That took me less than an hour." I was shocked stiff but Clarisse was not buying it.

"Please _you _did this? You probably grabbed the spares from the armoury and summoned a few monsters to deal with the ones in the forest."

"Clarisse, stop!" I shouted "didn't you hear Tony, he _saw _him beat them all. He's too dangerous to-"

"Shut up!"

"But if he used monsters why is he here by himsel-"

"I said shut up!" She pointed her spear at him. "Listen you little freak! I'm Clarisse la Rue and I rule this camp. Know your place!" He just stared at her, eyes almost in a dream state as if he was not taking her seriously. She gritted her teeth. "FINE!" I blinked, and in that time the daughter of Ares was already charging at him. "I Guess I'll Just Have To Beat It Into You!" She brought the spear down to her still opponent-

My heart skipped a beat, and so must have Clarisse's and the other Ares's. In one blink of an eye he grabbed onto the spear, a bit bellow the head and stopped it from touching him completely. Clarisse was shocked but soon continued to press down. She pushed but hardly lowered it and inch.

"Shame, you did seem the most enthusiastic." He grabbed onto the shaft of the spear and pulled upwards, shifting his legs and (this is the truth I swear) lifted the large girl off her feet, into the air and slammed her onto the ground. As she fell he looked at her with no visible fatigue. He the cricked his neck, with a insane smile and wild eyes at us.

"We need to retreat" I shouted "I'll hold him off, you take Tony and-" I never got to finish. Before I knew it his foot swung into my face and I flew into what must have been a rock. It was strange, I felt blood coming from my head and I could see the Ares kids running at him. But I couldn't hear anything. Clarisse was shouting something at them. It was instantaneous. He drew a blue/black sword with what looked like white specks in it and slashed strait through one of their swords and blood splattered through the first Ares. Another attempted a punch barrage but he simply swatted each blow with the back of his hand before stabbing him in the foot. All the while the grin was fixed on his face as if he was possessed.

Clarisse was still shouting, as near as I could tell, she was saying stop. Retreat. Turn back. All the words not associated with Ares kids the slightest. Ares three and four still charged, one from the east and one from the west. He threw his sword in the air and grabbed each blade with his bare hands. I wanted to be shocked, I wanted to help but my body didn't seem to move, my mind didn't seem to comprehend. He threw them off and grabbed Ares three by the collar into a headbut then, as he caught his sword, a stab in the thigh. He took the blade out and jumped above a charging Ares four, landed behind him and grabbed his arm. He kept pulling against him, twisting the arm where it shouldn't twist. Then one second later, he looked like he was screaming. I hoped it was just dislocated.

I couldn't move, couldn't hear and now my vision was darkening. Four campers lay injured, bleeding. I could just see Clarisse get up when I felt a pair of arms around me, dragging me. I couldn't protest and after Tony hand dragged me into the water, I was glad he didn't. I felt life flowing back into me, my mind clear and my hearing return. I looked to see Clarisse, grabbing two swords, tying to fend him off. But he delivered huge, powerful blows that knocked them out of her hands and then proceeded to slash her body, shallow cuts but a lot of them. Finally as she fell I could hear him.

"…someone stronger than this? Com'on! Don't tell me you're all there is. Well" He raised his blade in a reverse hold. "maybe this will attract more." I reacted at once. From the lake a jet of high pressure water shot over the grass. Faster than the quickest runner in camp. He must have heard it because he turned round as it came towards him. "Huh? What's thaAAAHHHH!" It hit him full force, harder faster, until he slammed into a tree on the edge of the forest. I thanked Tony and got out of the water, instantly strength fading and ran to Clarisse. She hated me but I had to see if she was alright.

"Clarisse, how bad are you hurt?" She grunted as she got up, wounds still open.

"Could have been a lot better if you stepped in sooner." She complained.

"Never mind that, we need to get Chiron and Mr D. You all need medical attention and there are a lot more in the woods."

"Yeah, I will, just as soon as I get the guy who did all-"

"What? Your friends are wounded and your just interested in glory?"

"If we stop him we won't have to deal with this again! Besides, I don't take orders from you Pissy. You tell Chiron while I deal with the gook."

"Hey, that's raciest." We both turned to the voice and gasped. He was getting up. Panting and in pain, but still getting up. Stretching his back we heard cricks and cracks of bones being put back where they should. He felt his chest and his heavy breathing turned to normal. Within seconds the fixed smile was back. "That's some power ya got there. I think I'll call it at this, you seem to be the only one here I could have a decent fight with." He turned to the woods. "Get rested up, I wanna fight you tomorrow night, got it? See ya."

Leaping between two trees he was at the top of the tree canopy and then leaped from one to the other before disappearing from sight. I couldn't believe it. That jet of water was powerful enough to break all his ribs, yet he got up from it in no time. I shook my head, there were other things to worry about,

"Tony" I called. "can you run to Chiron and Mr D and tell them what happened?"

"Sure." he replied.

"Good. Clarisse, I'm going to the woods and finding the others, you look after these four." If she did object I couldn't hear as I ran into the forest. It was less than a minute when I found the first people. An Apollo hanging from a tree branch, a Aphrodite with her face in the dirt (a scenario none of them ever want), a Demeter with his sword shattered on the ground. All unconscious, all wounded, all without their helmets. Finally I got the clearing where every cabin was present, Hermes, Hephaestus, one of the Dionysus brothers, Athena-

Then I saw her. Propped up against a tree, holding onto the shattered hilt of a sword lay Annabeth. I ran to her and checked her over. Didn't seem like any cuts but from the look of the bark on the tree she hit it with some force. "Annabeth, can you hear me. Annabeth!" I couldn't touch her, I didn't know how badly she was injured. A faint groan escaped her lips. "Annabeth, wake up. Where are you injured?" She opened her eyes, normally bright grey now dull grey.

"Wha…what happened?" she tried to get up but instantly clutched her stomach.

"Don't try to move. Where's the pain?"

"My…my stomach and my chest mostly, but there is a pain in my back." I checked behind her. A few chunks of bark were imbedded in her back.

"Listen don't move. Chiron is coming." She gave a weak smile.

"Good, the thought of you healing me makes me shiver."

"Well it seems your ego is intact wise girl. Do you remember what happened? I met another camper who told me some of it and I met the guy who did it. Long black hair, unusual sword?" Her eyes widened, I suspected it was all coming back to her now.

"Did you fight him?"

"Sort of. I blasted him with a water flume but he shook it off pretty quick."

"I've never seen anything like it. They way he took all of us, one by one as if we were nothing. How are the others?"

"They're all still unconscious. I'm afraid if I move them I'd make it worse."

"Good reasoning." said a voice. We both turned to see a horses legs. Then look up to see Camp Half-Blood's activities director.

"Chiron" I exclaimed, not at all phased on how a massive horse man managed to sneak up on me "did Tony tell you-"

"Yes Percy, he did." his face was serious and grim, unlike the Chiron I knew. "Where the damage?" he was addressing Annabeth now.

"My chest and back." she replied. After looking her over he gestured to two Satyr's carrying a stretcher who carefully put her on her side. Around me I saw more of them along with some nymphs, carefully putting the demigods into stretchers and even Dionysus was here, looking at the situation with mild anxiety. Before they carried her away, Chiron had one last thing to ask.

"Annabeth, is what Tony said true? One attacker?" She nodded, face already looking stronger and healthier. He closed his eyes solemnly. "Take her to the pavilion and tell someone to set up an Iris Message to Mount Olympus. Camp Half-Blood is in danger."

To be continued…

**So, who is this mysterious person? Where did he come from? What is the source of his powers? (Please post any theories you may have, I'd like to hear them :D)**

**If anyone's wondering what time in the books this is set, I admit I haven't read all of them and I don't read them all in one go as I like to savour a book. I'm just keeping this in a floating timeline with the only certainties being it's after the first book and before the last book.**

**BTW spoilers for books past sea of monsters are not appreciated so don't post any**

**BTW (part 2) this fic is on low priority for me as I need to get others on the way. Only if this gets a lot of reviews in this chapter will I consider putting it on high priority (if there are any Clone wars fans or X-men evolution fans reading this, be sure to check my fics of them out).**

**Please review :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, chapter 2, sorry for the wait but my computer has had virus trouble**

**Well here's chapter two, the camp recovers, the gods discuss and they prepare for another attack**

**Thanks for your reviews, they are much appreciated**

**Enjoy :D**

**Percy Jackson: New blood**

I looked at the dining pavilion, usually at this time full of campers eating grapes, cheese, bread, all kinds of low cholesterol, entirely healthy, teenagers-worst-nightmare foods. Now still full of demigods but in bandages, groaning, in pain. I was one of the few who slept in their cabins last night, but I did dreading this sight the next day. I saw an Demeter camper, older than me, hobble to the central fire, to burn part of his breakfast for his mother. He almost toppled before I ran to him and helped him towards it. After he did it he thanked me before handing a handful of juicy gapes to me for the fire. I quickly paid my regard to my father before helping him back to his seat.

"Percy." someone called, I turned to see Annabeth jogging, or trying to jog towards me. She stood strong, trying to hide any sign of injuries, but her face, showing the signs of a restless night proved otherwise. "Mr D wants to speak to the leaders of each Cabin. We're going to speak to Olympus directly." I was shocked to say the least. I expected Mr D to contact the gods but the leaders of each cabin to talk as well I'd never though he would let.

"Right, coming." I walked next to her. It wasn't long before she shuddered and almost tripped. "Annabeth are you OK? I can-"

"I'm fine"

"Look, you're not the only one who got injured. If you need help-"

"I'm fine Percy, don't act as if it's my first time in bandages!" she snapped. I kept quiet as she led me on. I could hear he muttering, something about a plan or a trap, something along those lines. That or she was cursing under her breath in Greek. Anyway, we were heading to the big house, already there was Clarisse, the Stoll brothers, Beckendorf and the heads of each camp, all worse for wear, all taunt and nervous. Chiron and Dionysus were waiting for them.

"You took your time Johnson, you do realise we have an emergency on our hands? An emergency _you _let slip away?" I kept back my anger at Mr D and just quietly sat down on a spare chair. Chiron stood to his full height and walked towards a spray of water, creating a rainbow.

"Now everyone, speak only when spoken too. Don't interrupt and when you do speak, speak only the truth." He threw a drachma into the spray. "Zeus, Olympus." The image began to twist before the colours swirled together to reveal a man in a blue pinstriped suit. Beside him were two other gods, one I wanted to see and one I didn't. To his left was my father, Poseidon in his beachcomber outfit not quite befitting a god. On his right my least favourite Olympian, Ares, biker gear and sunglasses adorned his body, defiantly not befitting a god.

Had we not been dealing with an insane omnipotent opponent I would try and strike some kind of connection. That an Chiron's serious tone kept me glued to my seat. Mr D got up. "Lord Zeus, Lord Poseidon, Lord Ares, I hope we are not late for this meeting."

"Enough of the formalities" Zeus snapped "we are here to discuss this attack. Give me the details." I knew very little people that could talk to Dionysus that way.

"Very well." he groaned "At 8:45 pm camp half blood was assaulted by _one_ unknown assailant. From accounts of the victims he had superior strength, speed and reflexes, matching on par, or even above, a demigod of one of the big three." At this Zeus and my father stiffened, Ares just looked more interested. "From their accounts he is a adolescent boy of Asian descent, long black hair and brown eyes. We have a image of him drawn for us. Well children, is this what he looked like?"

I shot up when I realised he was talking to us. He showed a picture, pencil drawn of a profile of his face and next to it a full body drawing. It was very good too, must have come from one of the Athena's.

"Um, yeah, that's him." the other campers nodded before the picture vanished in the gods hands. Then in Olympus each of the gods now held and enlarged, god sized copy of the picture.

"How do you expect me to believe all this?" Boomed Zeus, thunder sounding above New York. "Camp Half Blood is protected against all monsters and has trained some of the best warriors the world has ever seen. How can one person defeat you all? And what's this nonsense about someone with more power than one of my or my brother's children? That's impossible." I wanted to scream about the scores of Half-bloods injured and in pain. How can that be nonsense? I bit my tongue and clenched my fists, trying to keep quiet.

"I implore you father, it's true. How else were most of our campers hospitalised? None died and no monster tracks were found. We have the accounts of several of them, all saying the same-"

"Its untrue!" Lightning cracked across the sky and the other campers looked that much more nervous. "I am the most powerful god in the world and I didn't conceive him. He must be yours." His glare landed on my father. I expected him to cry out in furry like Zeus was, but he just shook his head.

"No brother, you have my assurance that Perceus there is my only human child." He pointed to me and suddenly I had to bare the glare of Zeus. The god of thunder turned back to Poseidon, looking as calm as a windless sea. Zeus growled.

"Fine, Hades then, he's broken the-"

"Ahem, excuse me mighty Zeus" Chiron stood up and moved to the image, Zeus glare fixed on him. "I have heard the accounts and seen the damage caused. This assailant had great power, but powers not deriving from Hades or either of you." Zeus settled down, but only I noticed Ares's increasing attention to the subject.

"Then who? Who else could be the father or mother of this boy?"

"I do not know. From his enhanced strength I'd say Ares but he lacks the build and the mindset. His speed is that of a child of Hermes but that doesn't match the strength he has. Once more he was reported to be able to stop a sword of Olympian

bronze with his bare hand." The gods faces turned to shock, all but my least favourite uncle. He sat, grinning in his biker gear.

"Sounds like fun, when do I come in and deal with him?" Fun? He called the injuring, mauling and near deaths of countless people fun? And the thought of Ares coming to camp made me nervous more than anything. If he couldn't find that guy he would come after me for fun, him and his kids. Thankfully Mr D butted in.

"That will not be necessary, we are merely calling for instructions on how to deal with him and a cell to suit his capture. We are not waging full scale war in my camp." No. of times he's wanted something bad _not _to happen to camp: 1 as of today.

"Please, grabbed a sword with his bare hands? Olympian bronze sword? Impossible." he spat. I had enough.

"It's true." I called, getting up and receiving a glare from Chiron and Annabeth, and a scowl from Mr D.

"And what's this?" Zeus said, anger painfully evident. "Young Perceus dare to interrupt a meeting between gods?" Thunder boomed in the distance. "What now? Do you expect us to go on your words and leave you to deal with this task?"

"No, not at all Lord Zeus." I waited a bit for the skies to brighten all the while feeling Annabeth's eyes boring holes in my back. "You see, I faced him on the edge of the lake last night. I hit him with a jet of water, strong enough to break bones and knock him unconscious right in his chest then he went flying into a tree. He recovered from that force and was strong enough to leap into the trees in less than a minute."

"Please" Ares sneered, visibly less happy. "how can we believe that?"

"There are witnesses, Clarisse and four other campers were with me." As the words came out of my mouth I knew I was doomed. Clarisse support me? In front of her father? I was doomed.

"It's true" or so I thought. Clarisse spoke out and stood up, face slightly nervous but truthful. "I was right by that guy when Jackson hit him with that water. I heard his ribs cracked on the impact." A few of the camp leaders grimaced at the thought. "After hitting the tree he got up in no time and leaped into the top of the forest." The gods were silent, Ares lost his grin. It was my father who spoke next.

"I sense both are truthful. Lets see. This child can grab a sword of Olympian bronze without damage. Possesses strength beyond most half-bloods, lighting reflexes and the ability to heal broken ribs in moments." He looked at Zeus, frown evident on the thunder god's face.

"What about Argus? Shouldn't he have seen him? Where is he?" The clouds darkened as Zeus's voice raised. Mr D stood up, seeing our turn was over me and Clarisse sat down.

"We have been asking the same question dear father. He has been missing since last night. We've sent Satyr's in groups with weapons in case they run into our mystery opponent. We've yet to hear from-" He stopped to the sound of hooves running up to our meeting. A very intimidated Satyr came up to the meeting and immediately bowed.

"My g-g-greatest apologies" he stuttered "mighty gods, Lord Zeus, Lord Poseidon, Lord Ares, Master Dio-"

"Get on with it" Dionysus groaned. The goat-person walked towards Mr D and whispered in his ear. He appeared shocked for a second. "Call of the searches and return to helping the brats." He quickly ran off and Mr D resumed the iris message. "They've found Argus. He was found beaten and unconscious, hung on a branch on Thalia's Tree." The heads of each cabin, including me, were frozen. He even took out Argus? Zeus in the message got up from his throne.

"This could be a one off attack, why would he fight again?" I stood up.

"He is coming back. Before he left he-"

"I think you've said enough!" Lightning and thunder boomed. After my past experiences with my uncle I shot back down, scared out of my wits. His scowl softened only slightly as if he got a bit of amusement out of my terror. Ares's grin returned. "Report again tomorrow at the same time whether the attacker returns or not." He took one last look at the picture of said attacker before it vanished in his hand. "And next time learn to control your campers."

The message evaporated. The meeting was over. I was about to breath a sigh or relief when I noticed Chiron, Dionysus and Annabeth glaring at me. I spoke out, interrupted and challenged the king of the gods, my own father and my bloodthirsty relative. I was surprised they didn't see this coming.

* * *

Clarisse got of free cause I dragged her into it and my punishment wasn't bad. I had to research, translate and write a few essays on the primordial gods and their effects on the world as we know it. It wasn't bad, it was murder. There was some constellation in the fact I had lots of time, due to injuries and the likelihood of another attack canoeing, rock climbing and translation activities were cancelled in place of extra swordplay and archery for those still able to fight. There were about fifteen of us at most.

The essay was due in for a week as I was needed for these activates too but I was pressured by Annabeth, specifically assigned by Mr D to stop me staring fights and going off work, to start work early on stuff about Chaos who's name is threatening but from Annabeth's descriptions isn't very dangerous, in fact it's just an entity with no mind or body. Then it was Hypnos putting Zeus to sleep then crying to his mom for protection and some stuff about Chronus. (Not that Kronus. In a few attempts to get it right due to her dyslexia Annabeth said they're two of them. Kronus, spelt with a K, who was lord of the titans and my granddad, and Chronus, spelt with a Ch, the god of time. Both frequently mixed up.)

The day dragged either way, people trying to walk when injured and many whispering about this and that made me tense the whole day. Translation and other low movement activities were open to them but many still wanted to train and fight (three guesses who's cabin they were from). Eventfully the sun set and we went to the dining pavilion at the horn. Me and a few others helped the heavily injured campers to the heath but it was a while before we were all sitting. As a precaution we had our weapons under the tables and were in full armour. I gripped my capped Riptide even as I munched on grapes and other foods. Mr D had left for Olympus to debate the matter with the gods further so Chiron was in charge so at least there was some good news.

"Hear me Campers" he called when we were all settled and given our offerings. "even though we are injured we must not give into this boy. Stressing about him and fearing him will only give him what he wants. We've talked to Olympus and if he dares attack again… well, what do you think happens with those that upset your patents?"

"I don't know, what?" called out a voice. Everyone turned, heads up at a figure on top of one of the columns. He had narrow eyes, long messy hair and worn and torn clothes. Immediately a lot of the younger campers recoiled and some even screamed at his presence. He jumped off the column and, even when he was so far off the ground, landed perfectly. Me and a few others got up at this point.

He strolled towards Chiron as if we went there and people immediately took action. An Apollo kid ran up to him and slashed his sword horizontally. He ducked and gave him an uppercut, sending him flying over a table. Two Hermes kids next, boy and girl, one on each side. He stopped the girl with his sword and the boy with his right palm. He battered the sword away and threw his own sword in the air. Turning he punched the camper who's sword he was holding, knocking him into a table. The other ran up but the stranger grabbed his falling sword and slashed the blackish blade down, cutting thought the bronze and leaving a gash across her chest.

"Get him!" Screamed Clarisse as she and two other Ares charged at the attacker. He ran to her, going from motionless to sprinting in a step and head butted the Ares in the gut. She fell to the ground in agony. Ares two had a sword and shield but the stranger kept silent with only one hand on his sword. He attacked the camper who blocked it, but staggered back at the force. Quick as a flash he swiped again, his opponent raised his bronze sword but it flew out of his hand from the force. He tried to bring back his shield but a vertical swipe wounded him. I was about to watch the third when I noticed what Chiron was doing, or in this case not doing. He was making no move to stop him but rather was looking hard at him, looking at his movements.

I tore my eyes away to see him kick the third Ares into a table, smashing it to bits. Clarisse silently got up behind him, electric coursing though her spear head. She ran, yelling a battle cry. He turned and ran to her too. She cocked her spear back. He did the same with his bare hand, looked like his palm was bruised. The spear impacted with his hand. We all expected it to pierce through it, but once again were stunned. His hand was not only undamaged but as the charge continued the spear head shattered from the force of his palm, the shaft splintered as he continued to push. Chunks of wood flew into the air, a great weapon destroyed. He only stopped when he got to her hand holding a now pathetic piece of wood.

Clarisse didn't move a muscle, her eyes were wide and her skin white, I had never seen her so scared. Heck I've never seen her scared at all. He took his hand away, splinters still falling to the ground, and began to flex it.

"Oww, ow pins and needles." he complained face frowning out of annoyance. Pin's and needles? He was hit with her eclectic spear, a weapon I've had the displeasure of feeling myself, the one that wounded and almost paralysed my arm and he only felt pins and needles? He removed his hand but Clarisse stayed frozen on the spot. He simply ignored her and walked on. "Come on, I've already fought you guys, how about someone new or that water spout guy."

"If you plan on continuing to hurt my campers" Chrion bellowed, picking up a spear and facing him. "you'll have to go through me." The guy looked at Chiron in interest. If he said that to me I'd be terrified.

"Well, you certainly look the most interesting of the lot." he said knowing full well it was an understatement. "Question is, are you a fighter?"

"Well, lets see." Chrion threw his spear into the air. The guy followed it with his eyes. My eyes were off it though. I was watching Chiron whip out a bow from his side, load it with an arrow from the quiver on his back and fire. Barely a second had gone by between throwing the spear and shooting the arrow. He saw it and, for the first time I saw him, he looked surprised.

His sword came out instantly. Taking a step back he brought the drawn blackish sword up just as the arrow was an inch from his throat. But he had other problems, like three more arrows the centaur fired. His movements however were just as fast. He twisted the blade, diagonal, vertical, horizontal, pacing backwards as more arrows hit it, either stopped and fell to the ground, bounced off and away or simply directed somewhere else. More came until Chiron fired the last one which he caught with his hand before smiling and snapping it.

"Whew, you have me worried there. Nice shooting, just need a better distraction next time." he called. Chiron grabbed his falling spear.

"I still succeeded in making you retreat." The boy frowned, noticing the evident distance he put between the two. But his smile soon returned.

"Com'on, what good is a few feet, I'm still here and" he pointed his sword at him "you've just seen what I can do to spears as flimsy as that." He was going to attack Chiron. I had to do something so before I knew it I charged and he grabbed Riptide by the blade. "Oh it's you." he smiled at me. "Could you hold on for a bit I'm planning of fighting the horse-guy first."

"If you could call it fighting." Chiron said. The strangers smile vanished, replaced by a dark frown.

"What do you mean?"

"I've seen you fight and it's just brute power. There's not fighting style, no stances, no sword techniques, it's just power."

"So? I'm still too much for you guys." I stopped pushing down when they started to talk. Even if I put my whole weight on Riptide I couldn't even graze him. My eyes went away from Chiron talking to him and back to my sword, wondering if he'll let it go. Then I saw it. I couldn't explain it at the time but where his hand was on my sword there was some black mist-like stuff on his palm and fingers. It was black with white specks like his sword. I pushed harder, groaning from the strain.

"What about you? All those legs must be difficult to…" he paused, noticing me. "Still trying?" he took his other hand and knocked me into a table, smashing it and forcing Riptide from my hands. Even with so much force I knew he was doing it half-heartedly. I had a theory about his power, quickly I began rummaging thought the scraps of the table looking for riptide even through I could feel it in pen form in my pocket. He walked up to me as I pretended to rummage on the floor.

"What's wrong? Lost your sword?" As he grabbed his sword from his belt I took the pen from my pocket and pointed it at him. A few seconds passed. He laughed. "Interesting choice, the wood from the table would have been better. Tell ya what, I'll help you find your sword. Maybe then I'll have someone powerful to fight."

"Nah" I said "its right here." I uncapped Riptide.

"Huh?" he mumbled as it began to glow. This bit I almost turned away from. The blade lengthened from the tip pointing at his side. His eyes widened and his face became stricken with pain and panic as the blade went through the right side of his body. He stumbled back, letting riptide slip out, and buckled over. I kept my sword pointed at him, trying not to look at the bleeding. He held the wound with his free hand. He muttered something under his breath, probably cursing me, when Chiron suddenly bellowed.

"Now!" he screamed. The sound of horns erupted around us. Hooves clattered from all sides. From the look on his face he was just as surprised as I was. Centaurs. Chiron and six others, all armed with bows, swords and novelty foam hands. Instantly arrows were fired, I didn't even see them load the bows. It also seemed that everyone but me decided to go under the tables for cover. He held his sword, shaky from having to hold his would and swiped it at blinding speeds against the arrows. But even that didn't stop some from getting to him. Deflect two, a third grazed his shoulder. Block one, a second made a gash on his side. The arrows came all around him as the party ponies attacked.

I've never seen them so serious. Instead of yelling and whooping when they are attacking they were deadly serious, though not enough to leave their cola hats and 'I'm with stupid' T-shirts behind. He was backing up, past the benches into a clearing. Chiron cocked an arrow and fired, embedding it into his right thigh. He fell instantly, groaning from the pain. The Centaurs surrounded him, Chiron up front.

"Friends of yours?" the attacker asked.

"Practically family." Chrion replied, pointing a sword at him. "You're injured, outnumbered and outmatched. Surrender now and we may even treat your wounds." He was silent, still clutching his wound. Strangely I didn't see much blood coming out. "Well? Are we going to have to force you?"

"You guys" he said "how did you get in? The other monsters couldn't get past a certain place, why not you?"

"Hey, we ain't monsters!" one of the Centaurs complained as our mystery attacker turned to face him.

"Well you are half-human half-horse, fire arrows at blinding speed and bellow an ear-splitting sound when you attack. What am I suppose to assume?" Before the party pony could speak back Chiron stepped forward.

"What other monsters?"

"Load of them. Big, fast, strong…chasing for weeks…so many… teeth and claws tearing through me." he changed completely. In a flash he shifted from cocky confident assassin to a scared post-bullying kid. It was too fluid to be acting, almost like he switched between two different people. Chiron noticed this too and lowered his sword slightly, something he was going to regret.

As I stared at him, both of us on the ground, me clutching Riptide, he clutching his wound, dark swirls coming from his finger- Wait! I looked at where his wound it. The same dark swirls with the white specks were seeping though his fingers. His eyes caught mine for a second. And in that second they changed back, back from shaking and frightened to maniacal and powerful. I yelled a warning-

And as I yelled he jumped up and head butted Chiron in his human chest. The others fired instantly but a swipe from behind split every arrow in two. He attacked, in what looked like one stride he got to pony one and made a large gash on his right side, horse bit, making him topple over. The other charged, hooves first, but he grabbed the lethal legs and threw him over his head. None of us saw that coming, he landed and grasped his limp leg, probably dislocated. He glared at the rest, they trotted back, cocking their arrows. Even Centaur's didn't want to get close to him. The smile came again and widened.

"If this was your grand plan then I'm disappointed" he said to Chiron, who just glared at him. "getting one of them to hurt me was the closest you got, too bad he didn't step up himself." He glanced at me. Someone pulled me back before I knew I was charging him. One look confirmed it was Annabeth. "But even that's no good." He removed his hand from the wound. The torn clothes would have exposed the skin, were it not for the blackish stuff covering it. The same bluish black with the white dots as I saw in his sword, dots and colours swirling. They swirled off the wound like smoke and to everyone's amazement and fear, the wound was gone.

"Impossible!" Chiron muttered, wide eyed. I had never seen him like this before. His eyes were full of disbelief, his sword shaking in fear his hooves frozen on the spot. "How could you have healed such a server wound in such time."

"Dunno, just happens." he replied in a bored tone, but I thought he may had been telling the truth. "Anyway, nice addition with the extra horse-people but I better be off sorry for wasting-" he looks at a cracked watch on his hand "a few minutes of your dinner. I'll be off, make sure the pen-sword water-spout guy puts up a better fight tomorrow night." He moved into an instant sprint towards the forest. The party ponies fired but he maundered around them.

The campers came out again, some helping the injured Centaur while I took in what just happened. A strange boy comes out of nowhere, starts fighting, switched from pissed teenager to hyper ten year old in a flash then losses all interest just when he's starting to win.

ADHD at it's finest.

**Well, there you have it, the next chapter**

**I'm not sure of the exact nature of ADHD but I wished the actions of the mystery boy to mirror these to an even greater degree of half-bloods**

**Camp Half-blood, the Centaurs, where will he strike next?**

**Reviewing makes me update quicker (in theory) :D**

**BrightEmeraldRose: Yes quite tough. Thanks for the first bit of feedback, glad you like it**

**TheMaskedWarrior: Thanks for the somewhat critical review, then again I did say that flaming me would be OK. Well I switched from a description of the boy to set the scene then moved to Percy's POV like the books are written. The fact I introduced Annabeth's POV might have been confusing but I'm not planning to do it again. I hope this chapter is better but if your still dissatisfied notify me about how to make it better**

**SeaChick: Thanks for reviewing. I'm nowhere near the fifth yet, just finished the second and I let one of my teachers borrow the third since I got her into it thus it'll be a wait before I'm spoiler safe.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well here's an update… believe it or not**

**I've been worked hard this term, homework, class work, Open Days (just visited two this weekend) so I'm incredibly sorry for the delay but it happened for the best of reasons**

**I tried my hardest to make the fight scene as good as I imagined and I hope you like it too**

**Enjoy :D**

**Percy Jackson: New Blood**

"This Is Unacceptable!" thunder boomed across the sky as Zeus made his glorious rant. Me and, in part, Clarisse were under strict instructions to keep our mouths shut until we were addressed. Chiron did most of the talking to Zeus and to the gods on either side, Dionysus and Ares. The fact my father wasn't there for some reason gave me even great reason not to speak. "He makes a fool of the camp once and you let him slip through your fingers a second time?"

"My lord" Chiron explained "due to the injuries from the last attack we have only a dozen or so good fighters."

"And your surprise strike?" He was referring to the Centaurs Chiron had contacted in an attempt to ambush him. It was kept secret in case someone was leaking info to the attacker.

"We managed to push him back after Jackson injured him but he healed himself somehow and may have beat us all if he didn't retreat." Zeus scowled.

"What do you mean 'somehow'?"

"Around his would was a mysterious substance, bluish-black in colour, that seemed to be healing him. Percy, you said you saw something else."

"Yes" I said, getting up while avoiding my uncle's gaze "when he grabbed my sword his hand was covered in that black stuff, like smoke, and it protected him from the blade. When I hit him where there was no black stuff he was injured normally."

"So this 'smoke' is the source of his powers?"

"No my lord" Chiron replied "I think it's an extension of his own powers." Zeus was silent for a moment, glancing at Ares to his left then to the state of the campers. I could only guess what was going though his mind maybe it was along the lines of 'if I send Ares down against such an opponent will it cause even more destruction than before?'.

"What a coincidence, that Jackson was in the thick of the fight in both occasions yet has remained unharmed." Or maybe not. "All other half-blood failed and were injured yet he injured him and is fit to fight, maybe there's something he's not telling us" I didn't believe it. I had done nothing but try to protect camp and Zeus was accusing me of working with him. Luckily for me Chiron sensed I was seconds away from disobeying his orders and cut in.

"That is impossible, lord Zeus. Annabeth had been with him most of yesterday on a project as punishment for interrupting our last meeting, Dionysus can confirm thing." the huge Mr D gave a bored nod that didn't satisfy Zeus in the slightest. "He couldn't have contacted the attacker, besides Jackson has proved his loyalty to the camp and the gods before, he would never do such a thing. And looking at our remaining campers and my own effort, he is our best hope of defeating this boy."

"It still seems too much of a coincidence." the chief god boomed. "We'll see tonight, if Jackson captures or kills the attacker he is innocent of conspiracy. If he escapes again I'm sending Ares down to tackle this problem and to confine Jackson to a cell if you refuse too." Ares grinned a sinister, animalistic grin, cracking his tree trunk sized knuckles. I felt his eyes behind his dark shades staring through me and it was only when Zeus closed the Iris message I realised I was holding my breath.

"That could have gone better." I said without thinking, earning me about a dozen glares from the camp leaders, Annabeth's probably the worst. Chiron walked/ trotted, towards me, sad look on his face. "Chiron, I'm not-"

"I know you're not, but for Zeus to believe that you don't you mush somehow capture him and not let him escape." His voice was serious and cold, but his face looked sorry for me. "However, consider his vast power and unpredictability, it's not likely. Train for now and we'll discuss plans after lunch. Campers dismissed."

* * *

Ah, the training grounds, where young half-blood's can destroy straw dummy after straw dummy with all kinds of lethal weapons without a care in the world. But even after slicing a dozen up into firewood with Riptide the dread of the last meeting didn't go away at all. He defeated the entire camp, a group of centaurs and Zeus expected me to beat him alone? We didn't know the extent of his powers, any weaknesses, we didn't even know who his parent was. No matter what I try to do we'll fight, he'll beat me and if he lets me live I have to cope with Ares restraining me and taking all the glory. I was angry, at Zeus, at Ares, at the attacker. I just swung my sword in a fit of rage-

"Yahhh!" I froze. That scream came from right in front of me, but no one was there. I looked down, dust was kicking up in a trail leading away from me. Oh. That's were it came from. I swung my sword again, the dust moved back. Again, further. "Hey stop it!" Said the invisible voice.

"Take off the hat wise girl." A second later Annabeth appeared, Yankee cap in hand and death glare on face.

"What is your problem?" she yelled.

"Lets see. I try my hardest to beat the guy attacking us but the gods see me as helping him, I've got tonight to defeat him or Ares come to get me and I've just found out you've been spying on me!" Annabeth was silent for a moment. Long enough for the situation to fall on me. Didn't Annabeth trust me either? Did she think I was working with him.

"I wasn't spying on you." she replied, glare softer.

"Then what were you doing?" She paused longer, eyes darting around. She was no longer glaring at me more… was she blushing?

"I… I was making sure you… weren't skipping training." I pointed to the dummies. "You call that training? This guy threw Clarisse over his shoulder!"

"What more can I do? I don't think I can beat him even if I drag him ten feet bellow the sea."

"You're exaggerating! There may be another way. Pumping salt water as rain above you as you fight, or maybe-"

"Just forget it." She looked at me in disbelief.

"What? You're just going to let him beat you?"

"Nothing we do works! We've tried swarming him, shooting him, sending crazed party ponies at him and what it gets us at the end? A half destroyed camp and a half done God essay by Percy Jackson." She groaned.

"You're _still _going on about that! Look Kronos with a K is the-"

"I Know What He Is!" Stress of the attacker, the god and Chiron's stupid assignment finally came over me. "Thanks to you my mind is stuffed with useless things about the primordial gods!" I didn't mean to yell insults at her, she looked as shocked as I was. "I know Tartarus is both a god and a location! I know Chaos is a mindless, bodiless… thing! I know how Hypnos put Zeus to sleep after Hera asked him to then ran of to his- …his …" It hit me.

"_From accounts of the victims he had superior strength, speed and reflexes, matching on par, or even above, a demigod of one of the big three"_

"_Around his would was a mysterious substance, bluish-black in colour, that seemed to be healing him"_

"_make sure the pen-sword water-spout guy puts up a better fight tomorrow night."_

"Tomorrow night…" Of course. It all made sense.

"Um, Percy?" Annabeth said, sounding freaked out.

"That's it! Why didn't we see it before?" She soon switched from confusion to annoyed.

"What are you talking about. All I see is seaweed brain insulting me and the time I spent helping you with your assignment."

"Yes, thank you Annabeth."

"I spent time, time I should have been training for- did you say thank you?"

"Think about what I was about to say."

"What, about Hypnos hiding from Zeus's by going to his m-" her eyes widened in realisation. "Of course, how could I have been so stupid."

"Don't hear you say that every day." She flashed a smile, making me silently thankful she wasn't mad at me.

"Don't worry it'll be the last." We ran, not jogging, but belted towards the big house where Chiron was talking to Beckendorf.

"Maybe some kind of cage" the centaur discussed "reinforced to stand his strength or place him in a position where he can't-"

"Chiron!" we both yelled. Him and the Hephaestus leader turned sharply towards us.

"Annabeth, Percy, I assume since you interrupted my discussion you have something worthwhile saying?" We stopped for a second as we realised what we were doing.

"Sorry but it's important. We've worked out who the attacker's godparent is!" Both camper and instructor stared in disbelief. "And we have an idea about how to beat him." Chiron was silent, doubtful probably that in a few minutes we figured out how to stop an unstoppable foe. He looked at us before smiling.

"You sound sure of yourselves, so do tell."

* * *

Night had fallen. There was no horn to call the campers to the pavilion for dinner, no dishes full of food to greet them, no delicious morsels of food to offer their parents. No camper was in sight. No camper but me, standing in the open, horse plume helmet, armour and Riptide. When this happens in capture the flag I feel like a soldier that hadn't been told the battle was tomorrow and turned up early, then would be the laughing stock the next day.

Right now I felt I like a dragon loomed over ahead and I'm the only one that didn't notice and run away. All the campers were in the cabins to avoid his attention as much as possible and I was standing here to attract his attention as much as possible. That part of the plan was Annabeth's idea for the record.

"Nice look, does it come in black?" I turned sharply at the voice. It was him. Standing a few meters from me, wide grin, catlike eyes and black hair. "So, what's coming this time? Lobster-people? Saber-toothed gorillas?"

"So I'm not enough of a threat? Or have you forgotten what I did to you."

"And have you forgotten how quickly I recovered?" Behind him the grass flattened, then again, then again like footprints. It was going to plan, I had to keep him talking.

"Very quickly, almost as quickly as you ran away." he frowned the instant I said that, maybe not the best idea. He whipped out his yellow-white sword, instantly turning the colour of that smoke stuff. Bluish-black with white dots.

"Only a few seconds slower than the time it take me to gut you!" Even when invisible I thought I felt Annabeth's glare. It was then I remembered something.

"Lets forget I said that. I'm interested about what you said last night, something about monsters chasing you?" when I said this he seemed to lower his sword slightly, but shook his head and raised it again.

"What's it to you?"

"You said you were being chased by monsters, so have a lot of the kids here, Chiron helped them recover… oh, and Mr. D." He seemed to relax a bit, his eyes lost their almost maniacal glare.

"Chiron? Mr. D?"

"I'll explain later. The point is whatever you've gone through we can help, we're not your enemies." He lowered the sword even more, close to dropping it. His face looked panicky, eyes darting everywhere.

"Yes, so many monsters. So long… Keep chasing me" I was positive now that a strong urge to fight anything with two legs (or more) wasn't the only thing wrong with his head. "…almost killed them!"

"Wait" I stopped listening for a moment "almost killed who?" Suddenly he shook his head and out popped that killer smile again.

"Forget it. You're wasting your time if you think I'll stop now and you capture me." Like a bad record he raised and pointed his sword again. But this time he was in for a surprise. "Now bring it- Hey! What the-" He stumbled back, but not on his own power. His mouth was open but no words were coming out. I ran to help, it would have only taken a few second before he found Annabeth's arms. I punched him in the torso but didn't react so I grabbed his arms to stop him attacking. But his feet were still free as I painfully realised when he stamped on my foot. Just to prove his legs were as powerful as his arms he kicked me away. With his arms free he found Annabeth's and threw her into me, knocking her cap off.

"What the hell are you?" he shouted. He looked at Annabeth, sheathed dagger, Yankee cap, but what caught his attention most was the cloth in her hand. Part of the plan. He only smiled. "Trying to knock me out? If I can survive against this entire camp what made you think you could just drug me to sleep?" I grew angrier as he laughed at us.

"Annabeth, go. I'll handle him!" she nodded and ran back to the cabins, for a second I was afraid he was going to follow but he was focused on me.

"So, what's your plan B?" I held Riptide up.

"Isn't that obvious?" he gave a short smirk before charging me. For just using one hand his strikes were extremely strong. I was using both hands but I was being forced back. His blows kept coming, I blocked each one without thinking. His slashes were so powerful any ordinary shield I could have had would have been scrap by now, Riptide seemed to be one of the only things not damaged in the ordeal. He swung horizontally, I blocked it but the blade kept going, making a small cut on my shoulder. I was no match for him here, I ran.

"Oh come on, where's all that fighting talk gone?" I heard him say behind me as I sprinted away. I was near the edge of the lake. Looking back I saw him casually strolling towards me, the in an instant broke into a run twice as fast and mine. He was seconds away when an idea struck. I stopped just at the edge and poised my sword to swing. "Forget it that thing won't hurt m-" his taunt was interrupted by my surprise attack. As swung my sword with one hand, before he reached me, and my other hand grabbed my helmet. Happy to get rid of the horse plume I threw it at him as my sword finished the slash and the helmet designed to stop blows to the head gave him a smack to the face.

He stumbled back and I ran at him, weapon in both hands and lashed out. But he raised his sword in a blink of an eye and I went back before another slash would arrive. He stood up, clutching his nose with one hand, that same inky smoke stuff around it, looking even more irritated.

"That was… unexpected" he growled behind his hand "original but, unless victory hinges on a nosebleed, pointless. I hope that wasn't your master plan." He removed his hand form his nose, a bit of dried blood the only sign it was ever injured.

"Yeah, that wasn't the plan." I spread my arms out, feeling the water behind me. "THIS IS!" The instant I raised my hands a tidal wave erupted behind me. My opponent stared wide eyed at the wave, twice his height, before uttering "Oh, Cr-" before the wave engulfed him. While he was knocked over I only felt stronger in the water, maybe strong enough to take down. I felt him in the water and swept him into the middle of the lake.

I saw him thrashing against the current I made, he was open. I went in for a strike but he saw it and pushed away. However a bit of red in the water showed I was partly successful. I landed, moving through the water as if I was still on land, he saw me coming and, after a few bubbles burst from his mouth in surprise, raised his sword. We clashed, my stronger arms with his already strong ones. He held his ground, surprising since he was floating in water, and slashed back but his moves were slower in water making them easier to dodge.

I dodged again before running for another strike, but instead of blocking he grabbed the blade, pulled me forward and kicked me in my stomach. Another kick. Headbut. Then he let go of riptide, planted his feet on my shoulders and jumped towards the surface. Since my feet were firmly on the lake bed, he had a solid surface to jump from. I surfaced in time to hear him inhale before he dived back under.

Another handy tip to fight him. 1. He can be hurt if caught of guard and 2. However strong he is he still needs to breath. Not much but it's enough to help me. Had I not been pondering that I may have noticed him swim beneath me. Lucky he let himself known by pulling me under. Well I say pull, throw right to the bottom would be better suited. I hit the ground, more painful then I figured and lying on my back I was greeted with a nice view of a sword wielding maniac swimming towards me, very quickly.

I raised Riptide in time to block him. He seemed to be getting used to fighting underwater, swimming fast and cheeks large with air. He kicked his legs, just as powerful against water as campers stomachs, pushing against me but I was stronger and more capable in the water than him. We glared at each other, pushing, blade getting closer and-

"Um…" We both stopped and twisted our head to the voice. Two naiads were gazing at us, in their genes and green T-shirts, hair blown back from the force of our fight. Their faces, usually smiling and playful, were wide eyed and confused.

"Sorry." I said, earning a surprised look from my opponent, for speaking so clearly underwater I bet. "We'll be a while you might want to get to safety." In talking to them I didn't notice his other hand without a sword clench into a fist. I did when it his my gut. "Now!" I shouted this time and they ran/swam away. That reminder also earned me another punch. Controlling the water I pushed it out, sending him floating away on the floor. I had an idea, moving the water more I kicked up the dust at the bottom, sending it all around him. He was blind.

After I spread it around the lake I closed my eyes and concentrated. I never tired this before but I was trying to feel him in the water, where he was and hopefully where he was looking. I felt a shape in the water, thinking harder I saw, well thought really, him treading underwater, looking back and forth randomly. I walked towards him, shuffling to avoid where he was looking until I was behind him. Even if he didn't expect me I wasn't taking chances, I raised Riptide, gripping tight and sliced down.

He could have just looked around by chance, maybe I let out a noise, maybe (quite possibly) he felt me coming behind him. The point is he turned as I raised Riptide. He brought his arm up, black stuff covering it. I continued my attack. I hit his arm, glancing at him just in time to see a confident grin. What ruined it was the red liquid that trickled in front of our faces. We both looked to his arm. Riptide cut through his instant shield. A small cut, but still a cut, was bleeding from where I held Riptide to his arm. He shot back, a burst of bubbles coming from his mouth before swimming extremely fast to the surface. I let myself float up behind him, trying to be quiet as possible as I got to the surface. Quiet enough to hear him talking.

"N-no, this is wrong… you said you'll help, help me." He was muttering to himself. Now I was definitely sure he wasn't right in his head. Stupid as it sounds I felt I had to help him somehow. Uncapping Riptide and putting it in my pocket, I made sure my clothes were wet so he wasn't surprised. He heard me swimming, turning his face to me. Eyes wide, mouth gaping and pale skin, well that last one could be from swimming in the lake.

"Look" I called, throwing both hands in the air. "I'm not armed. I don't want to hurt you and you don't have to hurt me." He swam away looking unconvinced. "Give it a chance, please… er…whoever you are." Only just realised he never gave his name. He stopped for a moment, just staring at me, not in fear, just staring. Suddenly his head shook, almost as if he wasn't controlling it.

"No! Don't listen… monster like the rest!" he called. Then he did his Jekyll and Hyde act and turned back to the smiling psychopath. He dived under a few seconds before me and we met floating in the middle. I raised Riptide as he swam towards me, black blade in hand- no wait. As he approached striking distance he raised his sword and put **both **hands on the hilt. I stayed where I was, expecting it to be only a bit stronger. Boy was I wrong. I blocked the blade perfectly, but the force set me rocketing through the water onto the lake bed. His blows were twice as strong now and they could already best me on land.

"Well, at least it shows I'm powerful enough to make him use two hands." I said to myself. A second later he glided down and locked swords with me again, I was stuck on my back while he forced his sword down on mine. "Haven't we already done this?" He managed to smile with his bloated cheeks while he kept pushing. Followed by a look of shock as my knee found his crotch. I pushed him off then slashed forward, he blocked it with his sword. My moves were just as quick here as on land but his were quick too. No matter where ran too or how I struck his sword blocked it. He knew I can hurt him and he wasn't taking any chances. I needed more power, at least enough to fight his two-hand grip.

"_This way…"_ I froze. That voice sounded so familiar. As he knocked me back with another blow I turned to the source. One side of the lake, the current of water was pushing that way. Then I remembered, the voice was like the Nereid, sea nymph, that helped me when searching for the master bolt. Of course, the current was the water washing to the sea. I ran there, startling any fish we already didn't disturb in our fight while he rose to the surface, likely to get air. I needed to keep his attention on me and not go back to camp so broke out of the water above him, ready to strike.

Had I saw the confident grin on his face as I surfaced I would have backed up. He was staring right were I was going to surface and readied his own swipe before I got there. He swung in turn, the clashing swords sending wave sized ripples through the water. I pushed him back a bit, he sent me flying in the air, luckily downstream. After I fell into the water I looked behind me, he was following on land. I swam with the current, making sure he was still following me and in case of an ambush.

I felt myself go into salt water before I looked ahead. My eyesight was sharper, all tiredness was gone and I felt even stronger. Maybe enough to beat him. I turned, Riptide ready to face- nothing. He wasn't there, not on the beach or on the banks of the stream. I waded there for a few seconds before I heard a loud grunt from the distance. I looked to the source and almost missed it. Above where the sound came from there was a boulder. A boulder thrown into the air and soon to land on me.

I swam out of the way as it crashed into the water. Another landed, about my size, further off. I turned to see another fly towards me. I dived under water, out of his sight, watching as more fell down into the sea. A few more landed around me as I avoided them, not hard since they were now thrown at random. Eventually they stopped, he couldn't see where he was aiming. I waited, he didn't come to the beach. "Guess he learnt from what happened at the lake." I needed him to come into the water, if not he might get bored and escape, or worse go back to camp. I looked at one of the boulders he threw and hatched a idea. A potentially stupid idea.

I picked the rock up, surprised with how light it felt, and threw it up, aided by a bit of water control. I looked at the shore when it surfaced. Movement in the trees. The attacker moved further towards the shore as I hopped, looking at the stone as it began to fall back down. He knew where I was, my plan was that when he picked up another stone I rush out and drag him into the shallows. Not likely but if it works I'll have him. I saw him bend down to a rock. He was buying it! Suddenly he spun round and something flew out of his hand. His sword. It sliced through the water aimed right at me. I tried to run but it impaled into my calf making me fall over underwater.

It didn't improve when I saw him swimming at full speed towards me. With a small trail of blood I pulled the sword out, the sea water numbing the pain and got Riptide out. Had a been a second slower I'd have been mincemeat. His blows didn't feel as strong as before and I was able to block each one and not take a single step back. He looked surprised at my sudden strength boost, even more when he noticed my leg. The cut was now a scar that faded away a second later.

"You're not the only one who heals fast." I said before charging him. He floated back then swam to the surface for air but I wasn't going to let my advantage slip away. After he surfaced I grabbed his leg, throwing him back down underwater before following him. He wasn't shaken for long as he blocked Riptide then delivered more two hand slashes. I stumbled back against the barrage, he was still holding some back! We kept striking our blades together, likely making waves on Long Island shore, none of use showing signs of backing down.

After breaking another lock I swiped at him but instead of countering he grabbed my wrist with one hand. Before I could struggle he threw me upwards, so hard I shot out of the water. As I looked at where I was going to fall he erupted from the water, fist first, and hit me in the stomach. Even being drenched in salt water it hurt like Tartarus. I fell into the water, grimacing from the pain all the while avoiding his sword, he was quickly getting used to fighting in water.

"Hey, you better not start running now!" he called to me "I knew you were better than the rest but this power is something else, keep it up." I smiled.

"You want power? Try this!" I lifted my hand up and a flume of water surged from under him, blasting him into the air. When he fell I did the same move as him and punched him in the stomach.

"Touché." he groaned. We resumed fighting, even with my water powers aiding me he still kept his edge. The sea kept moving according to our blows, mine forced it towards him, his battered it away. No matter how strong my blows were, no matter how big a wave I threw at him, he tried harder. Guess I was doing the same, trying harder each time to best his powers. But even over, under and drenched in salt water I was starting to tire. Luckily, although he tried to hide it, I felt he was too. Neither of us stopped, we kept slashing and swimming until the final blow.

He backed up from me, holding his sword firmly ready for what would be the final blow. The stuff around the blade became thicker, stronger, some of it smoking off there was so much. I copied, pushing water around Riptide, gathering all the strength I had. We leaped forward, our blades clashed and every fish in Long Island Sound got a very rude awakening. Sand from the bottom swirled up in an underwater hurricane. Seaweed, fish and rubbish got kicked up, thrown out of the water and sucked back down again. I bet it looked like a whirlpool on the surface as if Charybdis had moved in next door and hadn't eaten for a century.

It only lasted a few seconds before we had to stop forcing our swords against each other. The force of me, him and the water had to go somewhere and by some cruel, twisted law of physics it decided to go up. We both were sucked with the water as a flume, three times as big as the one I made, sending us flying upwards towards Long Island shore. We landed with the water escaping around us, sending a tidal wave over sand, rocks and grass. I was battered, kneeling and panting, shin deep in water and sand. He was the same, panting, staggering except he was wet from the blast. Both of us held onto our swords while piecing together what exactly just happened. He smiled.

"Now that… was something" he said, taking deep breaths between phrases "I don't… remember… the last time…I was exhausted." He stood up, wobbling slightly, staring at me. "I'll be good in a minute… you just keep getting stronger in the water." I was about to get up too when something in the forest caught my eye. I couldn't help but smile.

"Looks like I won't have to." He raised an eyebrow for a second before turning to the forest. There to greet us were over a dozen camper with Chiron in the middle, all wearing armour and ready for action. I say that but those that weren't Ares kids were looking nervously at him. We hadn't told them the plan and the Ares wanted to fight him again. I never been happier seeing Clarisse with her war face before.

"Um, water-guy" the attacker said with a confused frown "you've got me stumped on this one. You guys finally find someone who can fight me and then send in a few people I could beat with my eyes closed?" I noticed Annabeth in the group, mouthing to me 'keep him talking'.

"Do you believe in gods, Greek gods to be specific?" I asked him.

"Can't say I do, now can you answer to my question before I get bored and bash it out of you?"

"You should. They exist." He was silent for a second.

"I did rough you up but I don't remember hitting your head _that_ hard in the fight." I heard one of the campers hide back a laugh, probably a Hermes.

"I'm telling the truth, we know because we're their kids, this is a summer camp for Demigods." Now he looked totally lost. "Why the look? How else do you think we can run fast, weild swords so well, control water? The fact a half-man half-horse is our activities instructor?" He paused for a second thinking about it.

"And how does telling me this affect anything?"

"Because you're one of us. A Half-blood. How else could you have this much power." This time he laughed.

"Whatever they're dumping in the sea gone to your brain. I think I'd know if one of my parents was a god. You still haven't answered my question, tell me or I start breaking!" He was steadily looking less confused and more annoyed.

"It's true" Chiron said, trotting forward "but for a while we couldn't figure out who your godparent was. You had the strength of a Ares but not the build, the speed of a Hermes but that didn't match the strength, you can beast Percy here and his father is one of the strongest gods in the world."

"Oh, so that's your name." He seemed to be mostly ignoring Chiron.

"Until yesterday he and Annabeth figured it out." He turned to him, looking mildly interested. "Percy, if you'll do the honours." A dozen or so campers turned to me, looks demanding to know how whatever plan they were trying would work.

"Nyx, goddess of the night." A few campers flinched at the name. "It fits, she's as powerful as some of the strongest gods, hence how you beat us. The stuff covering your sword looks like the night sky" he held the sword up to see for himself "and your strategy. Why do you always attack at night?" He was about to say something, then stopped. He stared looking edgy, like when he did his Jekyll-Hyde impression.

"Be…becau…Because I didn't want to!"

"Are you sure it wasn't because you would be powerless?"

"I am Never Powerless!" he yelled, pointing his sword towards the campers "Get back to fighting or I start fighting them! Starting with that Anna… Anna… whatever your girlfriend's name is!"

"I'm not his girlfriend!" Annabeth yelled beating me to it. After that he reformed his grin, not the psychopath gin more of an amused one. "That's your plan? Fight me till daylight, hoping I'm really who you think I am, then surround me?" He laughed. "I told you I'm not this 'son of Nyx', besides you reinforcements is a bit early, we've barley been fighting a hour."

There was a long moment of silence. A few of the campers had confused looks on their faces. I smiled, the plan had worked. "Hate to break it to you but we've been fighting for much longer than an hour." His confused look came back.

"What? That's impossible."

"Is it?" Chiron called, holding up a bottle "I was stressed to make it under such short notice but it seems to have worked. This is a drug that changes your perception of time. Hours feel like minutes meaning your fight lasted a lot longer than you realised." He lost his grin, I could almost see sweat forming on his forehead.

"What do you mean, I don't recall anyone drugging me-" He paused, turing to Annabeth, holding the cloth he thought was to knock him out. His face turned back to a frown. "How long have we been fighting?" he demanded. Chiron smiled.

"Over eight hours." Now he looked surprised.

"If it makes you feel any better" I said "I took it too before the fight. And from the look of it, it's about to pay off." I nodded behind him and he turned his head in response. What we gambled on was finally coming. What we hoped would stop his power. Sunrise. He turned back, shaken but still unconvinced.

"You really the sun is going to stop me?"

"Well, it's doing wonders on your sword." He looked at it and face shifted again. The blackish stuff was coming off, like flakes that came off the sword into the air then disappeared a second later. He charged at me, I remember seeing panic in his eyes. I raised Riptide to block, expecting one of his battering ram strikes. But his attack was weaker, especially with me standing in the shallows. He paused for a second before forcing the sword further. But instead of applying more force, his pushing got weaker. I pushed, maybe with a bit too much force, both knocking him on his back and making a small cut on his cheek.

"H-h-how is this…" he stuttered. The black stuff started to form around the cut, but it quickly started to disappear. He noticed it in horror, pushing his hands onto the cut as if trying to stick the stuff back on. He ultimately failed as it all disappeared. He glared at me, raising his now bone-white sword… or would have had he not stumbled onto the water. When we were fighting his body showed no sign of tiring or stress, but now all that punishment he too was coming back. His legs wobbled as he stood up, his sword shook as he pointed at me and beads of sweat formed on his face.

"Wh-what have you done to me?"

"Nothing. It's the daytime." This only made him more angry. He stumbled towards me and threw his sword down. His blow was weak, even an Aphrodite could hit harder than that. He backed up for another but I beat him too it. I admit I felt a bit bad as Riptide broke his sword in two. He stared, mortified, at his broken sword, then at me, then at the campers. I noticed Clarisse and her friends cracking their knuckles. He ran to the ocean but sharply backed up as I made a small wave. I think he was close to surrendering.

"Get him!" Until Clarisse ruined it. She strode up to him, sword draw, shield bared and her half-siblings flanking ether side. I didn't think his face could get any more terrified but it did, morphing to a wide eyed, fear stricken face I'd seen before. He was Dr Jekyll again.

"Clarisse, Stop!" I yelled, moving in front of her "Don't attack him. He's this close to-"

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Too late. I spun round to see him, bolting eyes closed, broken sword flailing out, towards the campers. He passed me strait into Clarisse who in one swift motion grabbed the sword hilt and punched him. He staggered a bit before throwing one himself, yelling a war cry I could never do without making a fool of myself. The daughter of Ares let it hit her in the chin, without flinching. I gave up trying to gauge how terrified he looked. She reeled herself back then head butted him, sending him onto the ground with a load groan before he passed out.

"You didn't have to do that!" I called, earning me a glare from her, her cabin mates and a bunch of others that shared their opinion (I just hoped one of them wasn't Annabeth). "Did you see his face? He was terrified. In a few seconds he would have surrendered."

"Can't take the chance Prissy!" She yelled back and was about to continue before Chiron stepped between us, shutting us both up. He looked at the attacker and then to the campers.

"Take him on a stretcher to the big house. Clean up any wounds and restrain him there. Also someone set up an Iris Message, I need to make sure Ares knows his services will not be required." He gave a short smile to me before tending to him. We found out who his parent was, the source of his powers and caught him. But I still had questions, who is he? How did he get here? He mentioned monsters, but how many and how strong? I couldn't think of any more before I suddenly felt very sleepy, then blacked out.

To be continued…

**And that's all for now**

**Congratulations to SeaChick for getting his godparent right, I hope you enjoiyed this**

**As ever thank you BrightEmeraldRose, TheMaskedWarrior, SeaChick, Jia-Lerman-Jonas, Percabeth wish and chasezx3 for your welcome and encouraging reviews**

**Next update is gonna be a while, I've got my other fics to attend to so why not exprore the site and find some story's with competent writters**

**See you later :D**


	4. Chapter 4

**Well done, Captain Late strikes again but this time has a worthy excuse**

**I've been on holiday for two weeks on a set of islands with no internet access so I didn't bring my laptop so I couldn't finish proof reading this chapter in time to post it**

**Well anyway here it is, enjoy :D**

**Percy Jackson: New blood**

I must have had one heck of a nap because I woke up back in cabin 3, they had to have carried me all the way from the beach. I was still in my clothes minus the armour, though I probably would have slept as long if I had it on. As I lay awake a bit, letting the events of last night sink in, I remembered the look on the attacker when his powers went away, how I hurt him in the fight, of Clarisse. The thought of what was happening to him kept buzzing in my mind forcing me to get up.

It was late afternoon, almost night-time, and unusually quiet for camp, I guessed the other campers went back to their their daily activities. As I walked to the big house I noticed a few that were previously injured but seemed to have gotten better since two days ago. They smiled as I came by, a few came up to thank me. I returned their thanks but when I asked about the boy they just walked away. Fortunately Tony, the hermes camper I met when this all started, said they were keeping him in the big house basement as I expected. It was even quieter inside the blue building.

When I made it to the basement Annabeth was the first to noticed me. I found her, Chiron, Mr D and the heads of each cabin standing around a cage of olympian bronze. I'd seen cages used to keep various monsters in for special activities but this was something else. The bars, roof and floor were thick as my arm, every bar reinforced by another, interlocking, intermeshing, bolted, welded and magically sealed to the metal floor. But when I looked inside I lost all interest in the cage. Sat on the floor, face half concealed by long, dirty hair was an asian teenager with red swollen eyes, a small cut on his cheek and tears down his face. His starved body looked even worse on his torn clothes. Any menace this boy had from his appearance was far gone.

"Please, we only want to help." Chiron said in a tone as soft as he could manage. "But we can't help you if you're unwilling. Lets being with your name, Mr...?" He didn't reply, he only shook his head and looked away. Mr D sighed.

"This has taken all day. Let the crybaby stay in his cage. Maybe when night comes he'll grow a backbone." I let Dionysus's comment go without a frown. Now was not the time for grudges. Eventually Chiron noticed me.

"Ah Percy, you're up." The boy gave a quick look up. Half a second latter he looked at me again, eyes wide and bloodshot. He stumbled backwards, moving as far away from me as his cage would allow.

"No! Get away from me!" I could barely hear his accent beyond the choke in his voice and his sharp intakes of breath.

"Oh, so he can talk." the god in the room commented, uninterested. Everyone else in the room was very interested in his sudden change of behaviour.

"How is it going?" I asked Annabeth.

"Not well. Any attempt that he doesn't reply to he cringes at. The Stoll's humour didn't match his, he didn't even look a Selina or Katie's flowers and no matter how much of a good guy appearance Beckendorf put on he moved away instantly." Looking at the Hephaestus half-blood with his permanent scowl, huge physique and numerous burns on his skin I wasn't surprised.

"Has Chiron talked to Olympus yet?"

"No, he still wants more information on him before we report to the gods." I turned to my fellow half-bloods.

"Maybe I can talk to him." the other campers exchanged nods.

"Okay, whats the worst that could happen." Katie commented.

"Alone I mean." the other campers exchanged wary looks.

"Percy, he may be de-powered but he may still pose a threat if you give him the chance." Chiron warned in a low whisper "It will be night soon and we're not sure this cage could hold him."

"I know but having everyone here watching him can't be helping." Chiron was quiet for a moment looking at me then at the boy, the latter stared expectantly. It looked like I wasn't the only one in the room who liked my idea.

"Alright Percy, call at the first sign of trouble." He directed the head of cabins out and Dionysus followed looking relieved, probably so that he could get back to his game of pinochle. Chiron began to leave too before I stopped him.

"One last thing." I brought Riptide out of my pocket and held it out to the centaur who after a few seconds took it. I noticed our prisoner followed it intently, every centimetre since it left my pocket. I knew it would reappear in my pocket but I figured if our prisoner thought I was unarmed me might cooperate better. I waited until the sound of hooves were out of the house before I turned to one of the most dangerous demigod's I've ever known. I sat down on the floor with him, just a few inches from the cage.

"Hi." I said. He stared at me for a second, then the entrance to the room, then back.

"...Hello." he replied, quiet as a mouse.

"Have they given you anything to eat since you woke up?"

"I'm... not hungry." His stomach chose that moment to rumble.

"Here" I took out the remains of a chocolate bar that cost me three drachma's from the Stolls, it was a blatant ripoff but I had a craving that day. I broke off a chunk and handed it over. He regarded it with suspicion, but after another rumble echoed in the room he accepted it. Tasting a tiny bit of it, still wary of what it contains, before gobbling it up in barley a second. He looked back at me, then turned away sharply. But it was long enough for me to see the look in his eye. "Take the bar." This time he readily accepted, devouring it with such speed and haste he made Grover eating enchiladas look like fine dinning. I waited until three drachma's worth of chocolate was all gone, in his stomach or on his face, before I got onto a serious question.

"What's your name?" when he heard the question he froze staring at me, his breathing heavy. Although this time it wasn't out of fear, but seemed to be doubt. "I'm Percy, Percy Jackson, though you probably know that already." He unfroze but stayed silent, still unsure.

"... Nhat." he whispered, barley audible. "Nhat Quan Bui." I finally learnt the name of the man who took down half of camp.

"Right, Nhat. That a chinese name?" he frowned at me.

"Vietnamese actually." He sounded annoyed, certainly an improvement from terrified.

"Oh sorry, didn't know."

"You and just about everyone else at my school." he was getting into full conversations, even better. Just as I thought that his face paled. "My school... no!" he buried his head in his hands. "Not again! I-"

"Whoa, slow down Nhat. Let's start at the beginning, how did you first come to the states?" His breathing slowed down. He looked at me before staring at the space in front of his feet.

"M-my... dad made me. He visited New York a few years ago. He liked it. So much he insisted I go to school there this year. Said it was better for someone of my age. I didn't like the idea. I never been to a city before." I pondered this for a moment. New York was a great place but sending a child, by himself, from a country far from here to an unfamiliar city, didn't sound like a very responsible thing to do. I kept that in mind before I gestured for him to continue. "For... for the first few days I didn't like it, too different, too noisy. When I went into a tube station I spent the first few hours waiting for it to quiet down."

"...Yeah, that won't happen in New York. What school did your dad send you to?" I was only asking to see if it was one I'd been to.

"I can't exactly remember the name, but it was linked with a university, medical one I think. At first I hated the place but after a while I was beginning to like it. Made a few friends, adapted to city life, started to stay up late past the curfew and sneak out a few times. However dad didn't mention how hard the education is here." He gave a short laugh which I returned, if only to lighten the mood before the bad part. He grew quiet and looked down, afraid to continue.

"Whatever happened is behind you, if its something the monsters did its their fault, if its something you did everyone in this camp has made mistakes. I get expelled from school every year, before I came here I vaporised my maths teacher. What happened to you?" Nhat looked at me and I noticed all fear of me he had before was gone. He almost looked at me with respect before continuing his staring contest with the floor while twiddling his thumbs.

"It was a couple of weeks ago I think, on friday night. Me and a few others decided to spend the night looking for stuff to do. They were like me, new to the city, exploring." He gulped. "We found a cafe, very cramped but it had some great food, we hadn't got much money but the waiter insisted it was free." Free food, crowded cafe, dark night. Any demigod who spent a week here would know thats too good not to be a trap. "After a while the waiter started talking funny, and he looked like had only one eye. When I mentioned it to my friends they were..." He paused.

"They were what?"

"They were... I don't know what they were. They were talking as if they were drunk, but we weren't drinking. When I asked the waiter he... he grew. One moment he was normal sized the next he was three meters tall and his tray turned into an axe. I tried to get my friends to move. They stayed there. Said nothing was wrong. I turned to the other people in the cafe but..."

"They were under the same spell?"

"They all started turning into monsters!" I was shocked. I was one of the most powerful, and by extension most sought after by angry monsters, demigod known and the monsters that come after me are usually one at a time or in small groups. I don't think I could take on an entire cafe de' monstre without a water feature. "There were huge giants with tattoos on their arms, giant black dogs, women with snake tails for legs. They all came at once." My next response was slow, giving him time to relax a bit.

"Then what happened?"

"I... I... I'm not quite sure. It all happened so quickly. They dived for me. Attacked me. I think at one point a giant dropped their club. I grabbed it and just swung. I kept swinging it, and swinging it until all of them were gone. Then the doors of the cafe slammed open."

"More monsters?"

"Police. They shouted at me. Aimed their guns at me. I asked why. Then..." He tried hiding his face behind his arms, but I saw he was crying. "Then, one pointed to the ground." He looked at me and I knew from his face what he saw. "My friends. They were lying there. Bleeding. Hurt. They weren't moving. I, I didn't know what to do. I just ran. In trying to kill the monsters. I, I kill-"

"You don't know that!" He turned sharply at me interruption. "You didn't stay and check. They could have just been knocked unconscious. Nhat, were they still breathing?"

"I, I can't remember. I just ran. But, but more followed. Birds. A flock came from their air. Screeching. Tearing at my skin. I dropped the club and just ran. By daybreak they were gone and I was outside the city. I didn't know what to do. I tried to find someone but I thought they would turn into monsters. I just waited on the outskirts." He waited a few seconds. "When it was night time again they came back. More this time. Winged humans and Dragons. Th-they, they-"

"Attacked while taunting you about hurting your friends?" He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah that happens to me often."

"Does it feel like they're telling the truth." I give a sad nod.

"Every time. But a lot of the time they're lying. So they've been attacking you every night?" He nodded. "And when did your split personality develop." A few seconds passed.

"It was either the fifth or the fourth night in. They came again. This time with a massive lizard thing, like a dragon only much bigger." He began twiddling his thumbs. "I had been hearing a voice for a few days now. Saying it could help me. It could protect me. I tried putting it off. I didn't want to go insane! I lost my friends and was losing my mind too! It was halfway through the night. The giant's spear had broken. The lizard was looking at me. Those eyes. Horrible yellow eyes! They won't stop-"

"Slow down Nhat! Slow down... you'd been hearing the voice, you were looking at the lizards eyes. What happened next."

"I... I just wanted so badly to look away. For it to stop. He said he could do it if I gave him control. The lizard was about to strike me. I said yes!" Nhat uncrossed his legs and lay down on his back. "Then everything went black. The next thing I know it was morning and littered around me were... weapons. Body parts. The lizard's skeleton. The voice came again. Said it did it. It protected me. It killed all of them."

"Are you sure some didn't just run away Nhat?" he shook his head.

"The number of body parts and weapons. He had to have killed them all." I narrowed my eyes. Sounded just like Nhat, or the other-Nhat, that attacked camp. "It told me he needed a weapon. Said it had to be taken from the body of a monster. Said to take the biggest fang from the lizard skeleton's mouth. I did what he said and... this is gonna sound crazy... well, I probably was crazy at the time, but when I took it out it turned into a sword." The white sword that he used to attack camp I thought.

"And what then, did you let him take over at night while you walked free in the day?"

"It wasn't just night. After two days he took over entirely! I tried to object..."

"But he fought back."

"The opposite. The next time the monsters came he didn't come out! Not until he made me swear I would give him control! I don't know how many days and nights it went on. I couldn't afford to fight back." The room was silent. I contemplated what he said. The stress of endless monster attacks night after night. No demigod I've known has ever suffered that. Adding on his quiet life backstory, his inexperience and the sight of his friends almost killed by his hands I didn't find is surprising he went insane. "However that all changed a while ago."

"What happened?"

"I felt this pain in the right side of my body. I looked down- well, he was still in control, so I was more seeing what he saw. I looked down and saw a long sword... and you were holding it."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"Doesn't matter. I'm actually kind of glad you did. It made me snap out of his illusion and I almost gained back control when... what's his name, Chiron?, was talking to me. But it turned black again. Afterwards I refused that he blot me out entirely. And the next night I broke through more, when you talked to me before we fought, when we were in the lake, when the huge girl almost attacked me on the beach. And now, ever since I woke up in here, I hear nothing. Even before when he didn't talk I could tell he was there. Now, it's as if he's just been pulled out of me. Did you do that?"

"I think you need to thank Dionysus for that. He's the bored looking adult who was in here before." He smiled.

"Right, I'll do that." I was pleased to see the smile, but it quickly faded. "But with him gone... who'll protect me from the monsters?"

"That won't be a problem here. The camp has barriers to prevent them from coming through."

"Like forcefields?"

"...Sort of." He wasn't convinced.

"B-but what if they find a way through? What if they come again?" I looked up at the window in the room and smiled.

"Well they'll have to try harder than they are, 'cause it's night-time and they're not here." He shot up on his feet, looking out of the window. Then left. Right. Up. Down. Searching, listening. About to panic. But after a few seconds he stopped. There were no monsters anywhere. He smiled again, this time wider, open, full of relief and joy. But it faded. He grew restless again.

"What is it?"

"There's a monster in the room!" I looked around. Nothing was here but us. I resisted a sudden urge to pull out Riptide. "I hear breathing. Mine, yours... and something else!" It didn't take me long to realise what it was. I unclenched my fists.

"Where's it coming from?" He pointed to my left. I turned. "Annabeth, take off the hat." The next second there stood a frowning blonde girl with a yankee cap, probably annoyed her hat disguise had been picked though twice in a few days. He saw her and instantly backed away to the furthest edge of the cage, probably recognising her from last night.

"Nhat it's OK, she's a friend of mine." he looked at her. Then me. Before slouching back on the floor. "Did Chiron send you or are you just concerned for me?" I asked her.

"Both." I had the feeling my time was up, but it looked like Annabeth had some questions of her own. "Um, Nhat, sorry about the intrusion. I just have a few questions to follow up with Percy's, is that OK?" He looked at us both before nodding. "Thanks. Nhat, have you ever been diagnosed with dyslexia or ADHD? When asked with this question most people won't give a simple yes or no. They do what he did and ask what ADHD stands for. She explained both and he replied no. "What about at night? When you out did you have trouble reading." He thought for a moment.

"Now that you mention it I did struggle to read a menu from that cafe, I figured I was tired and the font was weird. What has that got to do with anything?"

"Demigods naturally have those features, the dyslexia is because-"

"Sorry for interrupting but, I'm still not buying the fact my mother was a Greek god. It just sounds so... unbelievable."

"Did you ever ask about your mother to your dad?" I asked.

"When I was younger, yes. But every time I did so he wouldn't say, he just looked sad. After a while I saw I was hurting him so I just stopped asking." We were silent for a while before Annabeth spoke again.

"Hey, out of interest are you able to heal that cut on your cheek?" He raised his hand to the cut, it had scabbed over since this morning.

"I don't know. How did he do it?" Nhat asked.

"I'm not sure. He just put his hand to the wound and the black smoke just healed it. Give it a try, will it to heal." he followed Annabeth's instructions. He put his hand to the cut, squinting his eyes in concentration and within a few seconds I could see the inky night-sky coloured smoke seep through his fingers. When it stopped he removed his hand, showing a cheek with no evidence a cut was ever there.

"Is it gone?" We nodded. He looked at his hand in wonder, like he was amazed he could do that. He furrowed his brow, concentrating again and the stuff appeared just above his palm in the vague shape of a ball. He turned his hand, rotating it and used his other hand to touch it. "A demigod..." He muttered, fixated on his power.

"I think Chiron would like a report from Percy" Annabeth stated "Is it OK he leaves for a while?" He nodded, but not without a look of unease. "Thank you, it'll only take a few minutes." We walked away, him tracing our every step before we came outside of the big house. Despite it being night it was still retentively light, partly due to the time of year and partly the camps torches providing all the light we need. Just as we exited so two campers, an Apollo girl and an Ares boy dressed in full armour were going in.

"Whoa, where are you going?" I asked.

"Guard duty." the Apollo replied coldly without stopping, but I stepped in front of her.

"It's not the best idea, guarding him in full armour. He's nervous enough as it is-"

"You don't make the rules Jackson!" the Ares snapped. "This is on Chiron's orders." I stayed a moment to watch them go downstairs before me and Annabeth made our way to the table Mr D uses for pinochle. There sat said god, the heads of the cabins and a few satyrs, faces with flickering shadows from the torches. Out instructor choose to stand as I delivered what I learnt.

"His name is Nhat Quan Bui, he came to camp after being chased by monsters for at least a week."

"All the way from China?" Travis Stoll asked. I then explained one, he was Vietnamese and two, he attended a boarding school in New York. "Oh, well that makes more sense. What else did he say?" I then explained what Nhat had said to me with several looks of sympathy from my fellow campers, even Clarisse looked sorry for him. When I was done our centaur teacher took over.

"We've seen this before, the creation of another personality in the face of constant monster attacks. The last one was a girl from Hephaestus cabin nearly half a century ago, luckily we were able to find her and bring her here for Dionysus to heal."

"Yes" Mr D replied, sipping some diet coke "although I didn't need to put as much effort to, whats his name? Hat, as I did her. It seems whatever Johnson did to him made the process a lot easier." That almost sounded like a compliment but I decided not to test it, especially after what he said next. "Although it was strange how quickly he succumbed to this madness."

"Indeed" Chiron replied "in most cases it took over a month for it to set in and this took less than a week."

"Well he was being attacked night after night" Beckendorf added "Maybe the attacks on him were more frequent than those of the girl you mentioned." there was a murmur of agreement among the demigods.

"There was something strange about his story" I added "His father sent him to New York, alone, without any prior knowledge of how cities work and against his sons will." more murmurs of agreement.

"What I want to know" said Selina Beauregard, head of Aphrodite cabin "is how a powerful demigod like him has gone this long without any monsters or satyr's noticing him."

"I think it's something to do with the nature of his abilities." Annabeth replied. "Being a son of Nyx his powers are only active at night, so the switching on and off of his powers has confused anybody trying to find him."

"She's right" A satyr next to Dionysus, tall and dark haired "me and my mates had a good sniff of him when he woke up and as far as we could tell he was human. But we have satyr's all over schools in New York, even with that off switch he should have at least raised the suspicions of one of them."

"I think I know why." Annabeth replied again "From what he said he has never been diagnosed with dyslexia or ADHD, but he discovered he does suffer from them... but only at night." the satyrs face grew a smile.

"Yes, that may explain it. Most satyrs attend schools for troubled children or ones that are good with them. If those traits were turned off with his powers he could attend any school."

"Invisible by day, unbeatable at night." Clarisse stated. "If he's alright in the head now he could be useful in future battles." This received even more nods from the heads. They felt first hand what he could do and a year or two at camp could make him a valuable ally. But I was thinking more about how lucky it was we found him before Luke, had Nhat come to him he might have encouraged the other personality. Chiron was next to speak.

"I am afraid for the moment that is out of the question, he is still unstable after what he's been through."

"I thought Mr D cured him." Connor Stoll questioned, earning a bored glare from said god.

"What you are forgetting is that I am the god of madness, not memories. All traces of insanity have been whipped from him but he still remembers everything that happened."

"Exactly, for the moment we'll keep the visitors to a minimum and in the morning we'll report our progress to Olympus." I turned sharply to the centaur, surprised at his statement.

"Well if we're doing that isn't it best we don't have those guards looking over him?" Chiron looked puzzled.

"What guards?"

"Uh... the two you sent in when we came out."

"I never sent for any guards." Me and Annabeth looked at each other, I probably looked as shocked as her.

"But they said it was by your orders." A second passed where we all just looked at each other. Before we shot out of our seats and marched to the big house entrance. But we never went inside, not after both of the guards flew out of the entrance, taking a large part of the doorway with them. We ran to where they fell, their armour was dented and bruised were likely forming but they were relatively unharmed. We knew for a fact he was capable of much worse. The two looked relieved when we helped them up, then terrified when they saw Chiron.

"Laura, Owen, explain yourselves, now!" His sudden anger surprised them, and me, and just about everyone else. They looked at each other, neither wanting to speak to our instructor.

"W-well..." the Apollo girl, Laura began "we, just wanted to... speak to him." I doubt anyone believed them. Chiron gestured to Katie Gardner, head councillor of Demeter cabin, to check inside the big house. Clarisse marched towards the ares camper Owen.

"What have you done!?" she yelled in his face. He looked to Laura, trying to gain some help against his head of cabin. No luck.

"After... after what he did to us, w-we just wanted to see him."

"More like beat him up." Annabeth spat.

"He almost killed all of us! We just recovered from our injuries a few hours ago!" Laura shouted at us. Then remembered who she was shouting to and spoke quieter. "We just wanted a bit of payback, we heard he was rendered powerless, we didn't know he could do this."

"I'm guessing you didn't catch them memo on him being the son of Nyx did you?" Travis asked. They looked at each other. I didn't know what frightened them more, the thought they just tangled with a fully powered Nhat or what punishment Chiron had in store. But that had to wait at Katie emerged from the big house.

"He's gone! There's a huge hole in the window, I think he's heading for the borders of camp." Just as I feared. I ran in his direction, hoping he'd forgotten his super speed.

"Percy, wait!" Beckendorf called after me, I just kept running.

"If he gets out of camp the monsters will be on him in seconds!" I yelled back in between breaths "We gotta stop him." Behind me I heard Chiron yell some orders and I heard someone else running up to me. I guessed who it was before I saw her. "This time stay visible wise girl." I don't know if she took my statement as humour or an order. We didn't look at each other. We just ran to save the most powerful, yet most vulnerable half-blood we've ever met.

* * *

We made it to the camp borders when we saw him. He'd already gone past them but was near enough for us to catch up, and hopefully get him back inside.

"Nhat, Wait!" he turned to us and stopped. If any other camper had said that he'd have probably kept running. He held up a sword, probably stolen from one of the false-guards, but it shook in his hands. His eyes darted between us, just as panicked as when I first met him for real.

"S-Stay back! You lied! Your all monsters like them!"

"Nhat, we are not monsters. But monsters will come if you stay outside the camp borders for too long. I don't know what those two did or said to you but-"

"You lied! They said you were going to make me fight again! Send me to die!"

"We're not Nhat! We just want to help. You have a choice whether you fight or not, we all do. Chiron's already punishing those who talked to you." He kept looking at us, more doubtful than panicked now.

"Nhat, think about it." Annabeth said, taking a step towards him. He took a step back. She looked right at him with the kind of look she gives just before delivering a lecture. "I know what it's like. To be feel like your always on the run, never knowing what monster will attack next. Before I came to camp me and my family was attacked by monsters constantly, not just at night. At seven I ran away from home." His eyes widened.

"Seven?" she nodded. We all stood there for a while before he lowered the sword and looked at his feet. "When you ran away it was to stop monsters from attacking your family, when I ran it was to escape. I didn't even think about dad." I wasn't entirely sure that was why Annabeth ran away but I chose not to say anything.

"We can have people check on your dad, he's probably fine since you left him before the monsters started attacking." he looked relieved when I said that. I knew we won him over. "Come on, lets get back to camp before any monsters show up."

"It's a bit late for that." Said a voice. We turned to it and found we were to late to avoid monsters. The one who spoke was an enormous giant wearing a slightly less enormous leather jacket with the sleeves torn off and tattoos all across his arms. Then we noticed the two others behind him. Then the fourdracanaehissing and snarling behind us. In what seemed like no time at all we were surrounded, pit scorpions, harpies, rouge cyclopses and a manner of other monsters only Annabeth would be able to identify. I understood then the fear Nhat must have felt every night.

"This is impossible" Annabeth muttered, trying to hide any panic in her voice "there's no way all these monsters spontaneously got here by themselves."

"Annabeth, focus less on how they got here and more on how we will get out." One glance confirmed my worries, Nhat was frozen solid in fear and backup wasn't getting here anytime soon. I searched my pocket and brought out Riptide, Annabeth already had her knife out, her cap nearly on and was eying the closest dracanae. We looked at each other. "We can't take them all."

"No but were right next to camp so backup isn't far away." We smiled at each other for a second before we leapt into battle. The dracanae were easy enough, we've encountered ones with much better armour and weapons but the scorpions were tricky, I knew too well what a sting from them would do to me. We kept in formation around Nhat, or at least I think we did looking at the monsters that turned to dust around me from an invisible knife. He had fallen to the ground, head in his hands. Ironic that our protection was the last thing he needed but a day ago.

The start of the fight went well as the monsters came one at a time. Hellhounds bared their teeth and claws but they were smaller than usual and the scorpions weren't as quick as I expected. I didn't need Annabeth to know they were just tiring us for the big ones to finish off, still no sign of backup. Suddenly Annabeth appeared next to me.

"Why are you doing this?" Annabeth screamed at the jacket giant. "Who sent you?" the giant laughed.

"Who needs to tell a monster to go after a demigod?"

"So half a dozen giants, a score of scorpions, a dozen hellhounds and more I can't begin to count were all in the same area and managed to track a demigod past the barriers this quickly? You're hired work, who sent you?" A second giant next to the leader just laughed.

"Sorry miss, that's on a need to know basis." he chucked before swinging his enormous axe, cutting clean through the spot Annabeth was standing. She slipped away just in time, turning invisible in mid roll and quickly introduced a cyclops to her knife. We were tiring and the giants had barley joined the fray. Nhat lay there, looking intently at us in wonder and at the monsters in fear. Suddenly a hellhound knocked me to the ground, I vaporised it but a scorpion jumped onto me. It raised it's tail, poised to strike- but then an arrow sailed into it's lightbulb sized singer, turning it to dust. I looked in the direction it came from and saw Chiron loading another arrow and Clarisse putting on her war smile. Finally the cavalry arrived.

But it quickly became apparent it was too little, including those two there was also Lee Fletcher and Charles Beckendorf, all pretty powerful but we were vastly outnumbered. Clarisse and Beckendorf charged in but they quickly slowed when they reached the edge of the monster group. Only Chiron's and Lee Fletcher's arrows helped us in any way.

"We need to move him!" Annabeth's voice called as an incoming harpy turned to dust. I grabbed Nhat's arm, pulling him towards camp while Riptide fended off the monsters. Monsters dissolved behind thanks to the invisible child of Athena, but we were still to far away. Clarisse was butchering them but there were just so many and the other campers were having little success. Suddenly something flew over me, landing in our path. It was too big to be a axe and the wrong shape for an spear. I stopped dead in my tracks. It was Annabeth. She lay there, clutching her left side, breathing heavily and rapidly. I looked at the direction she came to see the head giant pulling back his club.

"Oh, looks like I got a lucky swing." I was about to fight him, ready to send him to Tartarus the hard way for what he did when an arrow did the job for me. I turned to the archers to see Lee nod before firing at another monster. It was enough to jerk me out of my rage to see how hopeless our situation is. Surrounded by monsters, no backup at hand and I had to protect two people from enemies from all sides. I looked around the seemingly endless swarm looking for something, anything that could save us. My eyes landed on the son of Nyx, lying in the ground, head in his hands.

"Nhat!" He turned when I said his name. "Nhat we need you, you have to fight with us."

"No! I- I can't." his eyes were wide and pupils as small as pinheads.

"You can! Nhat we need you" I paused a second to fend of a dracanae "if you don't fight we'll all die!"

"But, but my friends-"

"You saved your friends that night!" The voice belonged to Annabeth, holding herself up with one shaky arm, eye's squinting in the effort. "Nhat if didn't do what you did you and all you friends would be dead. I can understand why you don't want to fight, but are you prepared to let this happen? Let us all suffer at the hands of monsters knowing you did nothing?" He was silent for a second, enough for more monsters to come in.

"Nhat, it's now or never!" I had to look away to concentrate on the monsters. It was relentless, Stymphalian birds flew in too fast for me to swat, the weaker dracanae gave way to stronger ones and the hellhounds had doubled in size compared. Endless monsters, no backup, no water, no hope. A hellhound jumped me from behind, it's sheer weight pushing me into the dirt. It gave a canine smile before opening it's jaws and lunged in. And it would have torn through my throat had something not hit it. Well, I say hit, more like knock him so hard he almost went into orbit. The excessive growling and snarling of the monsters that became the background noise of the fight suddenly stopped. Everyone, human or otherwise, turned their heads to see a rather surprised looking Nhat holding the club of the dead giant. That in itself was impressive as the club was twice his size. He looked at me wide eyed.

"I'm really strong." he said in disbelief.

"Yeah, think you've got a few more swings in you?" the monsters finally snapped out of their shock and charged forward with teeth, swords and poison right in front of them. Nhat screamed but instead of running as I half expected he swung the club again and three or four very mean monsters turned to dust. "Nhat, you OK?"

"No, I'm terrified."

"Good, keep at it and make a line towards camp! I'll help Annabeth." I pulled her to her feet and together we stumbled towards camp, Riptide right in front of me. Though I probably shouldn't have bothered. All the monsters were attacking Nhat, leaving the rest of us alone. I watched him effortlessly swing that club around sometimes hitting them on purpose and other times at random. The second giant came in with his axe chopping Nhat's club in half. The demigod looked at the stick he was holding while the giant readied another blow. I shouted to him. He turned just as it was coming. No time to dodge. No weapon to block with. He raised his arms. The axe head came down-

But something stopped it. A bright light came from where Nhat was standing. The entire battle halted as everything gazed into the light. But as I looked closer I saw it wasn't light, not entirely. The shine came from white dots within a bluish-black shroud covering Nhat. The giant removed the Axe and the veil dissipated, showing a young half-blood getting more surprised with each passing minute. The giant was equally shocked, before turning to rage and slammed the axe down again. The axe sailed through the air and was an inch away from Nhat's head before he caught it. Using both hands covered in oily night to clasp each side of the axe blade before pulling it out of the giant's grip.

Let me say that again. Not only did he stop a two handed blow from a giant, one of the strongest monsters out there, but also tore the weapon away from said monster's vice grip. It took the giant a while to comprehend it too, long enough for about three arrows to find his head. When you're dealing with Demigod archers, never stand still. Heck never deal with Demigod archers in the first place. Or children of Nyx for that matter as several were finding out as Nhat swung the axe in wide arcs of death, even Clarisse looked impressed. As I looked around monsters were retreating, a rare sight, they were all running Hellhounds, scorpions, harpies-

Then my eyes caught him. The one who wasn't running, the one who wasn't frightened, the one who wasn't a monster. It was a human, watching the fight face from a distance. I couldn't make out his face, it was dark now and he was too far away, but I saw a glint of light from a pair of glasses as he turned his head. When he did so he saw me and began to run.

"Hey stop!" I was about to belt after him but I head a groan next to me, reminding me of Annabeth's current state. We stumbled towards camp at a slow pace which turned to a jog when we heard a scorpion scuttling behind us. But after a few seconds it stopped, we looked around to see it trying to get through an invisible wall. We were inside the camp barriers.

"Nhat, fall back!" He turned to me just as the ashes of a rouge cyclops dissolved. Then back at the monsters still ready to fight him. He dropped the axe and ran to the borders, several monsters following. But Nhat was quicker and dived behind the camps defences. The horde, or what was left of it, glared at us beyond it. A few seconds later they turned and walked, scuttled and slithered away. Once they were out of sigh Nhat collapsed to the ground, lying on his back, breathing heavily.

"Nhat, how do you feel?" Chiron asked. He stared at him. A few seconds passed.

"Did I really just do that?" Out teacher nodded. "I feel shocked, bewildered and in constant fear of attack." I extended my hand to help him up.

"Welcome to life as a demigod."

* * *

"A son of Nyx?" Zeus bellowed half in anger half in disbelief. "Are you certain?"

"Yes my lord, it was part of Percy's and Annabeth's plan to capture him. The instant it was sunrise he lost all his powers." My high and mighty Uncle glanced at me with a stare as powerful as lighting.

"And no connection to Jackson at all?" I couldn't believe he still though I was helping Psycho-Nhat.

"No my lord, none whatsoever." Zeus stroked his beard while next to him the god of war Ares scowled, being robbed of a chance to fight.

"It still seems unbelievable how he gained a split personality so quickly. Dionysus?" Mr D shrugged as he sipped a diet coke with his feet on the table.

"His quiet upbringing and the sheer number of attackers might be the cause. But sometimes you can never know the true reason." Zeus turned away, half satisfied with the explanation.

"Anyway I hope you're arranging prisoner transfer to Olympus were we can keep an eye on him-"

"Wait brother" Poseidon, my father interrupted "we're going to imprison him? But he did nothing wrong, it was his-"

"Regardless of whether it was him or his alter ego he is still a dangerous Demigod, far too dangerous to stay in camp or be rehabilitated. This Nhat Quan Bui needs to be detained for everyone's safety, regardless of guilt!" a clap of thunder sounded after the final word. My father stopped but I could tell he didn't like it. "Ares you will see to this immediately."

"What? Bring a whiny half-blood to Olympus? That's some satyr grunt's job, not mine."

"You job is what I say it is." Ares mumbled before getting up, but Chiron interrupted.

"I would try and change your mind mighty Zeus but I am afraid we cannot transfer him in any case. As of a few hours ago he managed to escape." Your could hear a pin drop in the few seconds of silence that followed our trainer saying that. However me and the other councillors just prepared ourselves for Zeus's bellow that was about to follow. Which it did, thunder cracked, lightning blazed in the sky and the weathermen that predicted clear skies tonight were going to lose their job. When it finally died down Chiron continued as if nothing had happened.

"We tried to make a cage to contain him but even after all he's done we never knew just how strong he was. He broke out but when we found the cage empty he was long gone."

"Why weren't there any guards?" Ares asked suspiciously, and not without good reason. I got a glance from his red eyes before they went back to Chiron.

"There were, but they saw fit to torment the already unstable Mr Bui to which he panicked and ran off. We followed him but the instant he stepped outside monsters swarmed from everywhere, we have the war trophies to prove it. We lost him in the fray, however I do not believe he will attempt another attack. His malicious other half has been eradicated, his weapon destroyed, I'm not even sure he will survive the night." All of us hang our head, playing along with the act. Zeus was silent for a second.

"He better not, we can't have such a powerful demigod under _his_ control." We all knew he was referring to Luke, luckily that situation was impossible and it showed he bought our ploy. "Report the instant you find anything new." The iris message dissipated without even a goodbye.

"All councillors return to your cabins, this little incident has set us far past curfew." Chiron announced. "Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, Charles and Lee I'd like to have a word with each of you." The others left and us, the ones present in the rescue of Nhat, to which the rest of the camp considered a failure. We marched into the big house with Mr D and Chiron following, making sure we were out of earshot.

"Are you sure it was right to lie to them?" Lee asked with a tint of fear and doubt.

"You heard what he said" Beckendorf replied "they were just going to lock him up for something he didn't do."

"And who knows what they would do to him when he got there, they may have even killed him on the spot." Clarisse added. I too felt uneasy about lying, but a jail cell is not going to make him any better. We walked into a room with big leather furniture and a vietnamese boy sitting cross legged on an armchair, a cup of nectar in his hands. Around him were a few wood nymphs fussing over his hair. He looked completely transformed, he wore a new set of clothes borrowed from camp half-blood's startling orange collection, had his hair cut into a much shorter but unstyled version and he must have has a shower as all the dirt had been washed from his face.

I noticed Clarisse and Annabeth were staring at him intently, then I remembered Nyx was supposed to be one of the best looking goddesses out there, I even remember some of the Aphrodite kids wanted to speak with him personalty. Both girls however stopped when they saw I was looking and instead watched gesture to the nymphs to leave.

"We spoke with Olympus, they think you escaped and they won't come after you."

"Thank you." he replied taking a small sip, we told him what too much nectar can do to you "are you sure this isn't a risk for you? What if they found out?"

"If they find out it's our problem." I replied. Nhat glanced at Dionysus sipping some diet coke.

"What about you? I thought you were one of them." Mr D put his can down on a plater held by an ever willing Satyr so he could give him his full stare.

"Look boy, Rat is it? I have been put in change here of several dozen bratty half-blood's, if there's a chance I can get rid of one in a supposedly humane manner I'm all for it." That's what he said. But I think I wasn't the only one who thought he cared about him too.

"Thank you. Dionysus, is it?" the god nodded and Nhat too another minuscule sip. "What'll happen to me now? I can't stay here, the others will recognise me."

"We have a few placed demigod's like you could go" Chiron replied "small monster free places that have been tried and tested with other Demigods with similar problems. You should be OK so long as you limit your activities at night to resting and sleeping."

"I will. When will I move?"

"Tomorrow morning." He turned to us "we need to keep this secret, do not tell a soul what truly transpired tonight. I and a few satyr's will move him early in the morning so if you have any final goodbyes do it now." We got up to talk to him as Chiron and Mr D left the room. Lee didn't have much to say so he left first, then followed by Beckendorf after he had a little chat with him. Nhat first looked uncomfortable with him but eventually he warmed up. Clarisse mostly talked about fight moves in case he did run into monsters, basic stuff to us but I didn't think he was catching up so well. She patted him on the shoulder in an almost friendly manner before leaving.

"Good luck out there pretty boy." That left me and Annabeth.

"How do you feel?" Annabeth asked concerned.

"Scared." he replied looking intently at his cup.

"Don't worry about the monsters, they won't-"

"I'm not scared of the monsters" he interrupted, glaring at us "I'm scared of me." the room was silent "What I was able to do was inhuman. When I was in that battlefield holding that club or axe I felt like someone else, like I was slipping away back into that person that attacked camp. That person that hurt you."

"Nhat you're nothing like that, Mr D made sure of it." He turned back to staring at his half empty cup, showing his doubt.

"But I- He- I feel guilty about what happened and now I'm leaving without doing anything to correct it. I'm useless during the day, attract too many monsters by night and I need a therapy session after every battle. Maybe those guards were right-"

"Don't think that for a second!" Annabeth snapped, stepping right in front of him. "This camp was built over two millennia ago to train demigods like-"

"Wait a second" Annabeth paused though I felt she didn't like the interruption. "I thought America wasn't colonised until the sixtieth century, how could this camp have been here?"

"It was originally in Greece" I replied "locations of the gods move overtime, it's hard to explain right now." Annabeth turned back to him.

"Anyway this camp was set up to train demigod children to hone their agilities and to allow them to protect themselves from monsters. It happened with me, it's happening with Percy and if you hadn't arrived the way you did we would do the same for you. If it was up to me and Percy we would keep you here, you'll learn to fight and make up for what happened, but right now with Olympus demanding you and the threat of an upcoming war we can't."

"Wait, what war?"

"That doesn't matter right now" I replied "But there are people that could take advantage of you. Nhat you're not useless, neither are you a threat. You can't learn to help people at camp, so you learn elsewhere. Once that happens you can make up for whats happened." he was silent for a moment before he grew a new feature to his face, I'd only ever seen him look surprised, frightened or malicious. He looked determined, determined to do the right thing.

"Right, I'll go but I will come back and make it up to you somehow, once things have quietened down."

"That may be a while, according to this big prophecy it won't be over until I turn sixteen." he looked slightly confused. "Long story."

"That's OK, if you are fighting some war I'd just get in the way. But can I see my dad first, he's probably worried sick about me."

"You'll have to ask Chiron that" Annabeth replied "but I think he's already working on it." Nhat smiled at this before replacing his grin with a yawn, which I inevitably copied.

"How long have we been awake?"

"Frankly I want to know." I replied.

"Go on then, I think that's everything." me and Annabeth began to walk out "Oh, if you get the change could you visit wherever I'm going?"

"Sure." Suddenly Annabeth stopped and turned to him.

"Are you still fine about all this? Leaving everything behind to go off to some unknown place?" He shrugged.

"Wherever I'm going it must be better than New York, uh no offence."

"None taken." Finally, but regretfully, me and Annabeth left the Big House.

"Well, there goes on of the most powerful demigods in existence." Annabeth stated. "and I had just come up with some great plans for capture the flag that he would be perfect for."

"Maybe we convince him to stay, that way you're not always relying on me to be bait for Clarisse."

"Keep dreaming seaweed brain." we met with Chiron at the front, he looked quietly sad.

"I wish we could do more for him here." he muttered "Had he come to us by another means he could stay."

"I'm still wandering what could have set all these events in motion" Annabeth said out loud, holding her chin. "His unexpected move to New York, the sheer number of monsters and the all too well placed metal illness." As she said that the memory came back to me.

"Wait, I think I saw something in the battle we thought, something that wasn't a monster." Both of them stared at me as if I announced I knew how to turn rocks into gold.

"Go on." I talked about seeing the man, there wasn't much to tell but I tried to bring up all the details I could.

"You don't think it was... Luke, do you?"

"No" Annabeth said instantly "he wouldn't be seen dead in glasses, he made that very clear when he was at camp. And I think if he would have let us known it was him, this was all too secret."

"What I want to know is why does Olympus want him captured. I know he beat nearly the entire camp but from what I've learnt meddling with Nyx's children is a bad move. Why haven't we heard from her?" We turned to Chiron who looked back at the cabins.

"We'll talk about the possibilities of who orchestrated the attack in the morning after Nhat's transfer" Chiron replied "right now it's far past curfew and you need your sleep, tomorrow its archery and cabin checking."

"My two favourite activities." I droned with a bit too much sarcasm than I wanted. We did as told but before we parted ways we had some final words.

"There's something Chiron doesn't want to tell us" I said "something about Nyx."

"I don't like it either but with Kronos on the rise we need to focus on that, then we can worry about Nhat and Nyx." I nodded before I walked into cabin 3, my mind buzzing with questions. Who organised those monster attacks? Who was that guy with the glasses? Where is Nyx to help out her son? However they quickly evaporated as I fell in my bed, drifting off into a dreamless sleep. Oh how I will come to miss dreamless sleeps.

* * *

A pale green light flickered above a stone corridor, illuminating a flight of roughly cut steps. Along this corridor there lay a set of double doors with glass windows in the middle and, oddly, a hand sanitiser besides them. Behind the doors lay what looked at first sight a hospital wing with medical equipment and chemistry sets for analysis and drug production. But the chains on the walls and restraints on the far side told a more sinister story. Kneeling beside one table was a man with strawberry blonde hair, a thin pale face and thin rimmed glasses.

"You had night after night of opportunities to lure him towards me, to bring out his other side and you let him get to Camp Half-blood?!" bellowed a voice. The source came from a ghostly figure, a white outline of an old man in Greek robes with a long messy beard. But the most unusual aspect about him were several large glowing white orbs within him, on his arms, legs and all over his body.

"Please, father I-"

"Be silent!" The buzzing of the lights above were the only noise. "He is one of the only people who could interfere with my plans. Fortunately they are too preoccupied with the war with Kronos to look into how he ended up the way he is."

"S-so do we go after him or stay quiet until it dies down." the man said hesitantly.

"We'll wait, at least now we can be sure he won't interfere for the moment so I can continue my work in peace. Shame you didn't capture him though, he would have been useful."

"As a soldier?"

"As a guinea pig. You are excused." his son got up an swiftly walked out of the room while the man continued to look through a microscope. "Whatever happens" the otherworldly man muttered to himself "he mustn't learn about her." He glanced at the floor, thinking about what was bellow it. Bellow the lab was a dark dry cave. In the cave there were chains, thick, ancient, Celestial bronze chains. But they were sinister looking, red light glinted in the metal as if cursed to bring suffering for anyone or anything entangled in them. And entangled in those chains, loop after loop, lock after lock was a woman. Her long dark hair was frayed and messy, the remnants of a black dress torn and covered in dirt and her skin pale and cut. But her dark eyes still burnt with determination, hatred and compassion. You cannot hold a god forever.

**Well there you have it**

**Important notice: I am putting this fic on temporary Hiatus, which is probably a bad move since I've just revealed more of the plot. But my other fics need attention and I've been trying to juggle too many at once. I may update more in the future but this fic is now low priority for me. Sorry.**

**I don't like it either, I have a few plans for this fic that may materialise later but don't count on it being anytime soon. In the meantime I bet there are even better writers on this site than me so go check them out.**

**As ever thanks to all my reviewers, I hope this announcement has not upset you too much. Thanks for reading :D**


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